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SLATE 


AND 


BLACK BOARD 


EXERCISES, 


BY WILLIAM A. ALCOTT, 

Late Editor of Annals of Education, Confessions of a School- 
Master, &c. &c. 



HARTFORD : 

PUBLISHED BY TYLER & PORTER, 

NEW-YORK J DAYTON & SAXTON. 

1842. 


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PREFACE. 


The importance of the black board as an in- 
strument of instruction in the common school, 
has been insisted on in every periodical on edu- 
cation which I have seen, either of this country 
or Europe; as well as in almost every recent 
treatise on the same subject. It has also been 
introduced into most of our improved schools, 
of every grade, especially in New England and 
New York. In many of our common schools, 
however, it has been but barely introduced. The 
teacher knows almost as little how to use it as 
his pupils. It is vain or nearly in vain that ouf 
more intelligent Committees and even the Secre- 
taries of our Boards of Education Urge the impor- 
tance of its use, from year to year, so long as no 
instruction is given concerning its use. 

It is in this view that I have prepared the fol- 
lowing manual. It is, of course, n'ot designed 
for pupils,, but solely for teachers. Nor is it in- 
tended to be .used blindly, even by teachers them- 
selves. Let such oply of its methods be tried as 
seem adapted to the circumstances of the teacher, 
and let even those be modified to meet the pecul- 
a 


6 


iarities of his own school room. Hardly any 
mistake could be greater than for the teacher, 
who should take up a book like this, to adopt 
its various methods without reference to existing 
circumstances. 

It is the object of the writer of the following 
work to make it worthy of being studied by 
teachers as a system of slate and blaelc board in- 
struction. Not indeed as a complete or perfect 
system, for it makes no such claims. It is a 
pioneer work, on the subject ; and undoubtedly 
contains many imperfections. It was ready for 
the press, and its contents submitted to the Sec- 
retary of one of our New England Boards of Ed- 
ucation, before the little work of Mr. Bumstead, 
of Boston, called “ The Black Board in the Pri- 
mary School, and designed principally for in- 
struction how to proceed in teaching Arithmetic” 
made its appearance. I have, however, added 
to Chap. XVII a few thoughts suggested by 
the work of Mr. B., for which this is intended 
as an acknowledgment. 

Let it not, for one moment, be imagined that I 
am desirous of substituting slates and black 
boards for books and all other implements ; or a 
few lessons on these last, for hard study. Very far 
from it. What I would gladly do is to prepare 
the pupils of our common schools for the right 
use of books, and proper benefits of study. But 


7 


although the exercises which have been suggested 
are intended as preliminaries rather than princi- 
pal things in a course of education, I have no 
doubt that much might be done towards securing 
a thorough English education, with nothing but 
the black board and slate, and a suitable course 
of oral instruction. 

Should the teacher who takes up these “ Ex- 
ercises,” attend to the suggestions I have made 
both in this preface, and in several of the chap- 
ters, and instead of following, mechanically, the 
methods which are pointed out, attend rather to 
the principles of which these exercises are in- 
tended as illustrations, and thus be led to form 
his own plans and methods, my object will be 
far more perfectly accomplished than if he should 
only transfer its scanty exercises to the black 
board, and there let the matter end. I say scanty 
exercises, for to present as many of these methods 
and exercises as some might desire, or at least 
as many as would suffice for the wants of the 
indolent, would requiie a volume of immense 
size ; such as few teachers would buy, were it 
ever so desirable. To promote thought and pro- 
gress, has been my object ; believing that we 
have facilities enough already among us for the 
promotion of mechanism. 

Let me add, in conclusion, that I shall be very 
much disappointed if the same instruments and 


8 


methods which might effect a revolution in our 
common schools, should be found useless in 
families. On the contrary, I believe they are 
even more valuable in the family than any where 
else. The truth is, that the family and the im- 
provement and elevation of the family and the 
schools, can hardly be separated ; they must 
stand or fall together. 

Dedham , iJ/s., October , 1841. 








CHAPTER I. 


PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

A black board, in every school house, is as in- 
dispensably necessary as a stove or fireplace ; 
and in very large schools several of them might 
be useful. They should, in general, be suspend- 
ed on the wall, near the teacher’s desk or plat- 
form, so as to be, like the latter, in full view of 
the whole school. Of course they ought to be 
moveable, that they may be hung up in any part 
of the house convenient. And though the lar- 
gest may be six or eight feet long, and half as 
broad — and indeed the larger the better — it is 
certainly a convenience to have one or two so 
small and so light that they can be held in the 
arms like a slate. 

Now the word black board need not awaken 
in our minds the thought of any thing difficult, 
rare, or costly. Why it is simply a black board. 
Is there any difficulty in painting a piece of board 
black ? It is indeed desirable to have the board 
planed before it is painted, and to have it smooth 
and soft ; but neither in this is there any thing 
very difficult and mysterious. The greatest dif- 
ficulty to be encountered is that of finding a sin- 
gle board wide enough; for if we use several pie- 
ces, it requires some little tact to frame them to- 
' a* 


10 


gether in such a way as to have them answer « 
valuable purpose ; though even this is not 
beyond the art of the mechanic. 

Many have thought it better to paint black the 
whole end of the school room, near which the 
teacher’s desk is placed. This would not be so 
agreeable, as a brighter color, nor perhaps, so 
well for the eye, unless indeed the house was ex- 
ceedingly well lighted ; nevertheless it might an- 
swer some purpose. A smaller portion of the 
wall, of suitable size, painted black, — say six or 
eight feet square of it — would, in my view, be 
preferable. In either case, however, one or 
more moveable black boards would be necessary, 
for reasons which will appear in the progress of 
these exercises. 

Slates are as necessary as black boards, and 
even more so. But they are so liable to be bro- 
ken, it will be said, as to render it expensive to 
parents to keep their children supplied with 
them. There would be weight in this objection 
were it not that this liability to injury can be for 
the most part prevented. 1st, by care on the 
part of the teacher to withhold the slates whenev- 
er the pupils are not sufficiently careful of them. 
2, by having the frames made sufficiently strong. 
A simple band of cord, tin, or wire, round each 
corner, will greatly diminish the liability to inju- 
ry from falling; but sheet iron fastened tightly 
around the corners of a good oak frame, is much 
better. Such preparation may seem a little cost- 
ly at first ; but if it were left to my choice to fur- 
nish a school with books or slates, as a means of 
employment, I should not hesitate on account of 
the expense to furnish the latter. 


11 


j For let it be distinctly understood that no com- 
/ mon school can thrive well, and the moral and 
| physical character of the pupils be properly at- 
tended to, without furnishing the children with 
ample employment; and I repeat it, I know of 
no way of employing them so well as by means 
jof slates and pencils. On this subject, moreo- 
ver, I speak from considerable experience. 

But are not books necessary at all, when the 
pupils are furnished with slates 1 I may be ask- 
ed. Not for a large proportion of the children 
who attend our summer schools, nor for some 
of those who attend in the winter. To such I 
believe books are not only useless, but on the 
whole, worse than useless. As they advance in 
years, however, they may be indulged with a 
book, now and then, as a favor. Sucli a favor 
will not be esteemed a light thing ; and will come 
in time, to be sought more frequently, and with 
more and more earnestness. 

It is true we should not allow the pupils to 
have slates in their hands the whole time. 
Though it should be our aim to give them con- 
stant employment, yet their employment should 
be varied. Even the slate, if it were at their 
command continually, would become tiresome. 
To sit still, at times — ^ltirely still — if not con- 
tinued too long, is one form of doing something ; 
and I consider it as much a part of the teacher’s 
duty to form his pupils to the habit of sitting still, 
as to teach them spelling and reading. Not of 
course an hour at a time, or half an hour, or a 
quarter, even. To some children, five minutes 
would be long enough ; and to most, ten minutes 
would be the full extent of what would be useful. 


12 


Bat there are numerous other exercises which 
are useful to the young, in the school room ; 
such as standing, marching, singing, &c. ; to 
say nothing of exercises, at least every hour, out 
of it. 

But having black boards and slates provided 
for a school, what shall be used on them — chalk, 
crayons, or pencils 1 

For the black board, a simple piece of chalk 
will answer very well. There is no objection, 
however, to what are called, by some, port cray- 
ons. These keep the chalk from the fingers, and 
of course from the clothes. B y port crayons , I 
mean tin or brass tubes, about as large as a 
common crayon — or if a little larger, it would 
do no harm — with two slits at the end, into 
which a piece of chalk might by pushed, where 
by the elasticity of the tube, it would be retained 
with sufficient firmness. 

For writing on slates, nothing is better, on the 
whole, than common pencils. As they are 
liable to be broken, however, the question has 
been raised, whether short pieces, which are not 
so readily broken, should be used, or whether 
larger ones are not preferable. My opinion is in 
favor, on the whole, of long ones ; and for the 
following reasons. * If the pencil is long, and of 
a texture sufficiently soft, it will not be difficult 
to teach the pupil to hold it as he would a pen ; 
and thus he will be preparing to hold his pen 
properly whenever he comes to write on paper. 
But if the pencil is short, only an inch or two in 
length, it will, in all probability, be held in a very 
confined, awkward manner ; and the pupil will 
be unfitting himself for holding a pen properly, 


13 


in time to come. I know well that the habit he 
acquires of contracting his fingers, around the 
pencil, can sometimes be broken ; but it is often 
carried through life. 

To prevent them from being broken, the pen- 
cils may be wrapped in strong paper covered 
with paste, which should be well rolled round 
them and dried. As the pencil wears away, 
the paper and the stone may easily be cut away 
together. Or the port crayons , or handles for 
the chalk already mentioned, made a little 
smaller than a crayon — say about the size of a 
common quill — may be used ; in which case, a 
longer or shorter piece of pencil will serve the 
purpose, just as may happen to be convenient. 
The pencils or crayons should be attached to the 
slates loosely, by means of strings. In the case 
of the younger pupils, this will save them from 
being losf ; and in that of both the older and the 
younger, will prevent much confusion and noise. 
The desks of a school room should all be so 
constructed as to furnish a place for a slate. 
This, of course, would not prevent the teacher 
from taking the slates away from them when- 
ever he should deem it best, especially those of 
the younger pupils. 

Perhaps it should be added that a piece of $ 
sponge to each slate, and a larger piece for the 
black board — or if not of sponge, of cloth or 
wash leather — is as necessary as the slate and 
black board. The teacher, moreover, needs 
something for a pointing stick. 

I ought also to say here, that the preceding 
remarks, as well as those which follow, are made 
upon the presumption that every pupil of every 


14 




age has his own separate desk ; for I conceive 
this to be a highly important point, in the con- 
struction of every school house. Some, I know, 
undertake to say that one desk will serve for two 
pupils; and so it may, when we cannot do 
better. But one pupil, and one o/ily, to each 
desk, however young he may be, is certainly 
preferable. The expense of adding a few feet 
in the length and breadth of a house, in order to 
admit of space for separate desks, will be more 
than made up in increase of comfort and facility 
of progress to the pupils. These desks, more- 
over, should be at a considerable distance from 
each other. The reasons are obvious to the 
teacher. It is better to prevent evil, when we 
can, than to attempt to cure it. 


#. 

% 






CHAPTER II* 


FORMING LINES, CIRCLES, &C. 

At first, it will be well for the small por- 
tion of each day in which very young pupils 
are allowed to have slates, to let them use 
them much in the way they please. Some 
will make one thing, some 4 another. What 
they make is of comparatively little conse- 
quence, provided they attend, each to his 
own business, and do not interfere with that 
of others. 

When a pupil has become somewhat fa- 
miliar with the slate and pencil, he will 
esteem it a favor to be pernlitted to have a 
copy or lesson, and do something. Let him, 
then, have his lesson ; and if there are 
others, so as to form a little class, so much 
the better. 

The teacher may be the leader of the 
class, or he may employ an elder pupil for 
the purpose. In the outset, however, I like 
to have the wisdom of the teacher put in 
requisition, as much as may be ; assistants 
or monitors will do better afterward. 




1G 


One of the first exercises should be that of 
making mere lines, parallel to each other, 
or vertical. I have thought that vertical 
lines were most readily made. Not that I 
would insist, at once, on an exact perpen- 
dicular to the line formed by the bottom of 
the slate or black board, but something as 
nearly approximating to this position as 
could reasonably be expected. They should 
have a copy on the black board, thus 



These I would teach them to make of 
different lengths and at differing distances ; 
and even in greater or less numbers. The 
teacher may have variety in the lessons, by 
merely varying the number of the marks. 
After writing these a few days, I would 
present to them a lesson of horizontals, to 
be copied, in like manner, on their slates, 
thus : 


17 


A perpendicular and horizontal line rrfight 
then be drawn together thus. 




No teacher should expect too much of a 
young pupil, at first. His efforts will often 
be very rude ; there will hardly be the 
slightest resemblance between the copy and 
the original. Yet if there should be mani- 
fested but the slightest desire to imitate the 
copy, the teacher should endeavor to wait 
patiently for the results. If a pupil is in 
earnest, he will do something. If not, it will 
be easy to refuse him the use of his slate. 

Next,. two horizontal and two vertical 
lines may be united to form a square, and 
this may be a lesson for the pupil, for a day 
or at least half a day. Here is the lesson, 
except that for the sake of distinctness, I 
would have it much larger than this, on the 
black board ; and much larger there than I 
expected the pupils would have it on their 
slates ; since their eye, at first, cannot be 
supposed sufficiently trained to enable them 
to make allowance for the difference in 
size made by distance, 
b 


IS 



The parallelogram, or long square, is 
next ; and. may be of different proportion 
and size, at different lessons. For I hardly 
need to say that in forming these squares 
the pupil is still perfecting himself in the 
art of making perpendiculars or verticals, 
and horizontals. 

Oblique lines should come next in order, 
of which the following may be a specimen. 



In another lesson the slope may be re- 
versed, as in the following example. 




10 


These lessons being made sufficiently 
familiar, together with the parallelogram or 
long square, the pupil should proceed to 
combine the Vertical and horizontal lines 
with oblique ones, to form triangles. Let 
me here say, however, that I would not give,, 
the names of these various lines and figures 7 ' 
at first, at least as a part of the lesson.-** J 
would occasionally call them by their proper 
names, (as if without any particular inten- 
tion,) but would not at first require them to 
remember them. 

Here are some of the various triangles 
which I would present them for imitation, 
one at a time, beginning with those on the 
left hand. 



Every intelligent teacher will see the 
reason for preferring the order above, as 
well as the propriety of placing but one of 


20 


the triangles on the black board, for imita- 
tion, at a time. 

But we ought not to be tedious with young i 
pupils at first. Whenever we find their 
attention beginning to waver, to any | 
considerable extent, instead of insisting 
on their going on, from lesson to les- 
son, in this precise order, we should, 
for a time substitute something else. Let 1 
them try to make the picture of a horse, or 
a dog, or a man, or of any thing else. But 
even in this case I should prefer to have 
a copy of the object which is to be imita- 
ted, placed on the black board. 

One caution here may be neeessary. It 
may not be advisable to exhibit to a whole 
school, on the larger Black board, what only 
concerns a very few small pupils. I would 
here, therefore, at all events, employ an as- 
sistant or monitor ; and having set the copy, 
on a smaller black board or slate, would 
require it to be held at a little distance 
before them. * 

It has been said, in a preceding paragraph 
that the teacher, should not, at first, give out 
the names of the various lines, figures, &c. 
which the pupils were required to make. 
The reason for this is that it will only tend 
to confound or perplex them. One thing at 
a time should be our rule, as much as the 
circumstances may admit. But as soon as 
the lines and figures themselves become 


21 


familiar, and the pupil is somewhat expert 
at making them, it will be well to teach him 
names. It may be done with advantage in 
the following manner. 

Standing by the black board, with his 
chalk in his hand, the teacher observes ; 
Now, my scholars, I am to make some ver- 
tical lines, on the black board. How shall 
I make them ? Is this right ? at the same 
time making some wdiich are either horizon- 
tal or oblique. No. No ; say several voices. 
ft How then ? Is it so ?” making another 
wrong one. No. “ Is it so, then ?” at the 
same time making the line as it ought to be. 
Yes. ^ , 

Allow me, here, to make two remarks. 
One is, that it will be better, in many re- 
spects, to habituate the pupils, from the first, 
to signify their assent or dissent, their yes 
or no, by raising their hands. Such a prac- 
tice will be especially necessary in a course 
of slate and black board instruction ; for it 
will both save much time, and prevent much 
disorder. 

The other remark to be made is, that not 
a few teachers in pursuing this negative 
mode of instruction, both deceive themselves 
and defeat their own purposes. They wish 
to compel their pupils to think ; whereas, in 
fact, they prevent their thinking. 

Take, for example, the case above. The 
teacher, on proposing to make a vertical line, 
b* 


makes at first an oblique one, and then asks 
them to raise their hands, if they think it is 
right. No hands are raised. He then 
makes a horizontal line, and asks ; “Is that 
-right ?” They signify that it is not. Then 
making a vertical line, he says, “ Is that 
right?” in a tone of voice and with a man- 
ner, especially with an emphasis , which as 
fully convinces the pupils that he has now 
made the true line, as if he had said so, in 
plain words. I have often been astonished 
at the extent to which teachers deceive 
themselves, in this way. Without intend- 
ing to tell the pupils that they have now 
done the real thing proposed, they certainly 
do tell them by their motions, their tones, 
or their emphasis ; and no pupil who is at- 
tending to what they say, will mistake them. 

But there is another common form of 
mistake. Many fall into the habit of asking 
a certain number of questions, say one or 
two or three, before they come to the right. 
Thus, in the case above, they would make 
one wrong mark, and the next, each pupil 
would kqow to be the right, because it was 
the teacher’s uniform habit to refer to the 
right at the second question. In a thousand 
ways — certainly in very many — do teachers 
fall into habits which defeat their own pur- 
poses. It may be, too, that the pupils are 
sometimes deceived as w^ell as the teacher ; 
mistaking that for their own — something 


which their own minds have originated — 
which, in effect, they receive "from the 
teacher, and is a mere echo of his opinion.* 

He who is convinced of the truth of what 
is here affirmed, will take special pains to 
avoid falling into such an erroneous habit. 
He will endeavor to lead his pupils to think 
rather than to imitate, or decipher, or echo 
back his own thoughts. It is indeed one 
excellence of slate and black board and 
oral exercises, that there is not apt to be so 
much of the error alluded to, connected with 
these modes of instruction, as with many 
other modes. Still, as we have seen, there 
is danger , even here. 

When horizontal, vertical, *and oblique 
lines have been formed, from time to time, 
into squares, parallelograms, and the vari- 
ous sorts of right angled triangles, the pupil 
should be permitted to make circles of 
various sizes like the following ; beginning, 
of course, with the larger, and proceeding, 
at successive lessons, to the smaller. 

He should also be required to make parts 
of circles ; of which I here present a speci- 
men : 


* Children are better physiognomists, at least they are 
better “ discerners of the thoughts of the heart,” by the ap- 
pearance of the countenance, than we are apt to regard 
them. What are conceived by many a teacher to be the 
children’s own cogitation* or inventions, are very often the 
mere echo of his own heart or brain, or the plain indica- 
tion of his manner, tone and emphasis. 


24 



Here, too, as in the former case, I would 
first teach them to make these various 
figures without their names ; and afterward 
apply the names, in the form of a review oi 
the lessons, at the black board ; as men- 
tioned under another head. 


We should not proceed farther with our 
pupils, at once, toward the region of draw- 
ing, than to teach them to make straight 
lines and circles, and their various combi- 
nations. It might be useful, however, to 
combine these, rather more vari usly than 
has been thus far recommended. For ex- 
ample, I would add a triangle or a half cir- 
cle- to the top of a square. One of these I 
would say, when the class could pretty well 
imitate it, resembles a house, except that it 
has no chimney ; can you tell me which it is ? 

They might also, indeed they should be 
taught to combine triangles in such a way 
as to make larger triangles and squares ; 
and squares should be so combined as to 
make larger squares, and if possible other 
figures. Let the ingenuity of the pupils be 
particularly exercised, on this last point. 

They may be asked, moreover, what ob- 
jects, in the room or elsewhere, are square 
like the figure they have made on the slate ; 
or what ones approximate closely to such 
or such a shape. 

In this connection, they may be led to 
see that a circle faintly, though but faintly, 
represents the sun, the moon, a button, a 
piece of money, a plate, a bason, the face 
of a clock or a watch, a ring, &c. The 
human face, an eye, &c. may be referred 
to, and the pupils may be told what is 
meant by elliptical and oval. 


26 


As the subject becomes more and more 
familiar, and the mind of the pupil advan- 
ces, he may be taught to form many other 
geometrical figures. On this subject — that 
of teaching what may be called the ele- 
ments of geometry to very young children, 
as well as for the sake of practical illustra- 
tion — I am disposed, for once, to fortify my 
opinion by authority. The late Rev. Joseph 
Emerson, whose talents and skill as a 
teacher are known throughout New Eng- 
land, has the following remarks 

“ Geometry, in its nature, is one of the 
primary studies. It may be understood by 
itself without the knowledge of any other 
branch, except a very little of language 
and arithmetic ; while scarcely any other 
branch can be well understood without 
some acquaintance with Geometry. 

“It is my opinion that the child should 
commence the study of Geometry before 
learning the alphabet. He is not, indeed, 
prepared to encounter the elements of 
Euclid ; but he can clearly comprehend 
some of the distinguishing properties of a 
straight line and a curve ; of a circle, a 
triangle, a square, and an ellipse ; of a cube 
and of a sphere. As the subject becomes 

* See “ Prospectus of the Female Seminary at Wethers- 
field, Connecticut,” for the year 1826, a pamphlet of about 
60 closely printed pages; and one which is, in itself, quite 
a complete manual for teachers. 


familiar, and his mind strengthens, lie is 
able to understand some of the distinguish- 
ing properties of a pentagon, hexagon, hep- 
tagon, &c. ; of the different kinds of trian- 
gles ; of an oblate and prolate spheroid ; 
of a parallelopiped, of a prism, of a cone, 
and of pyramids. He may then go back 
to the circle, and attend to its properties, 
more particularly in the consideration of 
arcs, chords, segments, sector, radii, diam- 
eters, sines, tangents, degrees, minutes, 
seconds, the mariner’s compass, &c., &c. 
He may then proceed to a more particular 
consideration of angles, triangles, squares, 
&c., &c.” 

Nothing, it is true, is here said about the 
slate and black board ; but if these things 
are to be taught, at an early age, there can 
be no doubt that the slate and black board are 
most happily calculated to aid in the work. 

Following out, then, on the black board 
and slates, — at least in some good degree — 
the ideas which Mr. Emerson has suggested, 
the pupils should be taught the pentagon, 
hexagon, heptagon, and octagon ; as well as 
be led to some general ideas of arcs, seg- 
ments, diameters, and the like. We should 
be exceedingly careful, however, not to fa- 
tigue our pupils, especially at first, with 
hard names. The name of the plainest, most 
common figures, may, indeed, be taught 
them, but not so with the more difficult. 


28 


Perhaps, in the progress of this kind of 
instruction, it would be an excellent plan to 
give out a lesson on the black board, in 
which circles of various size might be said 
to resemble certain round, but very different 
objects. Thus the first circles might rep- 
resent the sun ; the next, a little smaller, 
the moon ; another or two, very small, and 
perhaps a little gibbous, some of the stars. 

The following might be drawn on the 
black board as specimens of combining both 
right lines and others. 



20 




Again, at another lesson, the first or larger 
square might be said to represent the floor 
of the room, the second, (very small, in pro- 
portion,) the table ; a third very small also, 
and rather oblong, a book. Again, on an- 
other occasion, but by no means at the same 
time, let the largest square represent the 
common, or some open field, well known to 
them all ; the second in size should repre- 
sent some garden, equally well known ; a 
third the play ground, or the spot of ground 
on which the house stands, &c. 
c 


But to return to circles. This figure* 
says the teacher, represents the clock idee ; 
and that the watch. Now, on this largest 
one, I will put letters like those on the clock. 
If the pupils are none of them quite pre- 
pared to imitate him, his efforts to please 
them will at least afford them a good deal 
of amusment. So would an attempt of the 
same sort to represent the mariner’s com- 
pass. 

One exercise more may be mentioned, 
under this head. I allude to the combina- 
tion of various portions of circles with eath 
other, and with right lines, in order to pre- 
pare the way for making, ere long, the let- 
ters of the albhabet. To a vertical or per- 
pendicular line, for example, they may be 
shown how to add one or two semicircular 
lines. First one, in this way, D ; or in this 
P ; or in this, L. Secondly, two half cir- 
cles may be added, as in this case, B. 

Some might be apprehensive that the last 
mentioned exercise would degenerate into 
mere play. This depends muth on the 
spirit and manner of the teacher. In proper 
hands, however, no such result need be ap- 
prehended. Few go so far towards this 
extreme as to be exposed to any considera- 
ble degree of danger. 


CHAPTER III. 


FORMING LETTERS, AND THE FIGURES USED 
IN ARITHMETIC. 

The pupil is presumed to be ready, at 
length, for instruction in making- the letters. 
As the first step, we should select such 
capital letters (for I would begin with the 
capitals on account of their mathematical 
shape) as can be made from the simple ele- 
mentary lines with which the child is al- 
ready acquainted. 

Perhaps the most simple letter to begin 
with is I. Next to this, however, may fol- 
low L, H, T, Z, E and F. Not at once, of 
course, but in succession ; and only one of 
them at a time. I would not proceed to a 
second, till the pupil was somewhat familiar 
with the first. 

Next to these might follow those made 
up, in part or in whole, of circles. First 
O ; then Q and C ; and then D, P, B, R 
and G. And lastly would follow those 
which are more irregular, in two classes ; 
first, W, V, A, K, M, N, X and Y ; and 
secondly J, S and U. At first, I would 


form no combinations of these, nor even 
teach them their names, but soon proceed 
to the smaller letters, teaching them in 
a similar manner ; that is beginning with 
the more simple in form, and going on to 
the more difficult and complicated. Thus 
o, i, s, v, w, x, z, &c., are among the more 
easy to be imitated ; while a, g, r, y, &c., 
are more difficult. These small letters, 
moreover, should be written by the teacher, 
on the black board very large. It is no 
matter if they are six times as large as 
they usuall^appear in the pages of a com- 
mon book. The reason of this is that they 
may be seen distinctly, by the pupils ; and 
be more easily imitated. They will, of 
course, be apt to make them somewhat 
smaller than the copy. 

It is, important that considerable time 
should be spent in these last exercises ; 
especially in making the small letters. The 
benefits to be obtained thereby are numer- 
ous. Let me observe however, that in teach- 
ing children to make the small letters — 
though not the large ones — we should in 
proceeding, give them their names, requir- 
ing them to remember them. Thus when 
we have written v on the black board, we 
should say ; now we are all going to write 
vee ; and after the letter is made or attempt- 
ed — Now how many of you know what the 
name of this letter is ? As many as do will 


33 


raise their hands, &c. Thus should we 
proceed through the whole alphabet. 

It may interest the pupils also, to know 
that many of the small letters, no less than 
the larger ones, are made up essentially of 
parts of circles. This is the case with a, b, 
c d e g p q and s. 

There will be nothing lost in spending 
considerable time in teaching the young, or 
even those who are a little older, to make 
the letters of the alphabet with a good deal 
of accuracy ; not only the small ones, but 
the large ones also. In doing this I would 
proceed in the manner indicated on page 
21 ; remembering, at the same time, the 
cautions which were there thrown out. I 
would however, first teach them, whether 
singly or by classes, those which are most 
alike — those which could be, most naturally 
associated. Thus if we set them a lesson 
on the black board, consisting of several dif- 
ferent letters, it should be made up of such 
as very much resemble each other, rather 
than of those whose resemblance is less ap- 
parent. L, I, T, H, &c., consist wholly of 
vertical and horizontal lines ; W, V, A, &c., 
of oblique and horizontal ones; O, Q, S, 
and a o s and g wholly of curved lines ; and 
may therefore be properly classed together, 
whenever classification is indispensable. 

Many weeks — I had almost said many 
months — may be spent, and I doubt not 
c* 


34 


with profit, in writing the small letters, 
either alone, or in combination with others. 
For variety’s sake, if for no other reason, I 
would however, sometimes bring together a 
combination of these — such an one as had 
some meaning, as dog, sot, cat, kite, nose. 
This would be, it is true, a slight departure, 
for the time, from the principles I have just 
laid down — of classification — nevertheless, 
as a temporary expedient, I have no doubt 
of its advantages. 

Two or three important objects would be 
accomplished by spending considerable 
time in this way. First the letters would 
be likely to be well learned. To those, in- 
deed, who prefer, the new fashioned mode of 
teaching whole words, before the} 7- are 
analized, or before we give them the names 
of the parts of which they are composed, 
this reason would have but little weight. 
Nevertheless, nearly all our school-books are 
constructed with reference to the old inode 
of teaching letters before words ; and as it is 
likely this will be the more usual mode of 
instructing in our common schools for many 
years to come. I have at least proceeded in 
these exercises upon that supposition or ex- 
pectation. 

Secondly, the pupils will be acquiring, all 
this while-that is if they are attended to-the 
habit of properly holding and using a pen- 
cil ; and this preparation for the future, 
must of course be attended to somewhere. 


Thirdly, they will be preparing to learn 
to spell, read and write. I know it will be 
doubted by some, whether such exercises 
actually prepare the way for writing ; but 
this point will be made more clear in an- 
other place. 

One useful exercise to the young, at every 
stage of their instruction, especially at this 
very early stage, is that of requiring them 
to distinguish the size, shape, &c., of objects, 
such as circles and letters ; and trace re- 
semblances. Too much importance, as it 
seems to me, can hardly be attached to this 
exercise. I will therefore present a few 
illustrations. 

The teacher writes, on the black board, 
the letters o and c. Now how many of 
you, he says, can tell me the difference be- 
tween these two letters ? The true differ- 
ence between them is then pointed out. So 
of e and c ; s, and z ; i and y ; and m and 
n. 

What is the name of this? says the teach- 
er ; at the same time making a large circle 
on the black board. What is this ? making 
at the same time a small one. You say, he 
adds, that they are both circles ; are they 
both then alike ? How many think they 
are different. Will some of you tell me 
the difference ? 

The teacher makes a triangle and a circle. 
What is the name of the first ? What of 


30 


the second ? Are they alike ? How do 
they differ ? Is there any other difference ? 

“ From what is the letter i made up ? Of 
vertical lines, horizontals, or circles ? The 
letters w and v ? The letters o c and 
e? The teacher writes b on the black 
board. Addressing himself to a par- 
ticular individual, he says, “ I see your 
hand is raised ; you may tell us.” A 
perpendicular line and a circle, is the reply. 

“ Is it a whole circle, or a part of one ?” A 
part. 

“ I will now make three letters, on the 
black board,” says the teacher ; at the same 
time making W V and A. “ What do these 
letters most resemble — triangles, squares, or 
circles?” What do these three most re- 
semble, C G and Q. Here are two, X and 

Y what do these most resemble ?” 

“ What is the difference between W and 

V ? How many can tell me ? What is 
the difference between V and A ? What is 
the difference between M and N ? What 
between P and B ? Which is made up 
from a perpendicular line, a horizontal, and 
part of a circle ? Which from a perpendi- 
cular, and part of two circles ? Of what 
sort of lines is Z made ? How does Z 
differ from N ?” 

But as I have elsewhere said, I would 
dwell most on the small letters, and the nine 
figures or digits. I would question the pupils 


37 


frequently and minutely on both these. In 
no way can they be made to remember them 
so well as in this manner. 

When they have become familiar with 
all the small letters, the teacher should pro- 
ceed to teach them how to make the nine 
digits, as they are sometimes called ; I 
mean the characters used in arithmetic. 
With these, as with the alphabet, I would 
proceed, slowly and cautiously ; always 
observing, as much as possible, the maxim 
which requires us to do but one thing at a 
time. 

But would you pass over the larger letters, 
and not name them at all? some may per- 
haps ask. I do not think it necessary to name 
them ; indeed, I think it confuses the pupil 
to find there are two n’s for example so 
strikingly different as our large and small 
one. The names of the large letters will be 
acquired by degrees, as the pupil advances 
to writing, spelling, defining, reading, &c. 
I have taught multitudes of little children 
to read, who came to me ignorant of their 
letters ; and yet I do not recollect that I 
ever taught the names of any considerable 
number of the large letters. 

We come then, to the nine digits, or figures 
of arithmetic. These should be taught, one 
by one, by means of the black board and 
the slates ; beginning, of course, with the 
simplest, as 1, 8 and 3. The first, it is ob 


38 


vious, at a glance, is principally a vertical 
line; the second and third are made up, 
essentially, of two circles each. Four of 
the others, 2 5 6 and 9, are made of chiefly 
of parts of circles ; and 4 and 7 of right 
lines ; either horizontals or verticals. 

It is hoped that these exercises, in teach- 
ing the Alphabet, and the figures used in 
Arithmetic, will not be regarded as tedious or 
unnecessary. I believe that, if the plan which 
is here suggested is not the very best , it is 
at least one of the best which has ever yet 
been attempted. At all events it is infinite- 
ly better than the equally long road which 
the tyro was once compelled to travel with- 
out taking much interest in what he was 
doing. But whether the best method or not 
of merely learning the Alphabet (that it is the 
most rapid I do not pretend) one thing is 
certain, viz, that children are interested in 
it, and that it affords them, for a time, full 
employment. But it has an advantage 
greater still. It is an excellent preparation 
for the studies, which in the usual course of 
an English education, ordinarily follow. 


V. 


Chapter iv, 


MAP MAKING* 

The idea of placing map making next iri 
order to^he alphabet, may be thought a 
litqe aifigulkt by many teachers. They have 
bh4n / accustomed to regard Geography , they 
will say, as coming in at a much later period. 

But it is not geography, properly so 
called, which I propose to introduce here j 
but only an exercise which is preparatory 
to geography. Nor do I propose to teach 
even map making to any considerable ex- 
tent just now, but only to make, a begin- 
ning; for which purpose I suppose this to 
be the most appropriate place. 

The exercises of Chapter II. were a 
means, among other things, of preparing the 
way for map making. In fact some t)f 
them may be considered as little less 
than first steps in this important art. 
Such, in particular, was that of repre- 
senting the common, the play ground, 
the school room and the table, by fneans of 
so many squares. 

There can be little doubt that in making 


40 


maps, if not in the study of geography itself, 
the best way is to begin at home. Indeed, 
at the present <lay, this is a point conceded 
by nearly every intelligent and successful 
teacher ; and not a few of our school geog- 
raphies are constructed with reference to 
this important principle. 

Having initiated the pupil, I would set 
him to making maps of the school room, 
and of other rooms, places, and things,. in 
good earnest. In making a map of the 
school room, he should, be taught to mark 
the places where some of the principal 
things stand, such as the stove and teach- 
er’s desk ; as well as the places occupied 
by the doors and windows. 

The teacher will, of course, lead the way 
in this exercise on the black boad. After 
drawing the outlines of the room, he will 
say, “What shall I place here ?” pointing to 
the spot where it will be obvious to some of 
them, if not to all, must be the place for 
the stove, or the teacher’s desk. If they 
raise their hands in token that they know, 
he then asks some one. Suppose it is the 
stove which is to be located, and it stands 
on the south side of the room. He next 
asks, putting down his pencil on the oppo- 
site or northern side, at the place which 
should indicate the spot on which the desk 
stands ; “ What shall we put here ?” The 
answer is elicited in the same way as be- 


41 


tore* and the place of the desk is accordingly 
marked on the map. “ What shall 1 put 
down here ? How many oi you can tell ?” All 
raise their hands. Addressing himself to a 
particular pupil, he says, “ You may tell us.’* 
Of the door, in like manner, he asks j “Where 
shall it be placed ? Where shall I put the 
southwest window ? Where the north- 
west ?” &c. 

Next to a map of the schodl-room, should 
be a map of the school-house. There are 
few school-houses which contain no more 
than barely the school-room. Most of them 
contaiil an entrance and clothes room ; some 
a wood room ; and a few have one Or more 
recitation rooms. All these should be 
marked off, on the map J first on the black 
board, and then on the slates. For what- 
ever is worth preparing on the black board* 
by the teacher and the pupils conjointly, is 
usually worth copying by the pupils upon 
their slates. In any event, all maps, how 
much soever the pupils have had to do in 
assisting the teacher to prepare them, should 
be transferred to their slates. 

If there is a play ground regularly en- 
closed, in connection with the school-house, 
a map of this should Come next. If not, the 
pupils may be required to make a map of 
the road near the school-house, or of some 
open spaeS Or common, if there is one near 
by, with which they are all familiar. Next 


42 


to the map of a play ground, that of the 
road near the school-house is usually most 
interesting to children. It affords, in gen- 
eral. a greater number of important parts, 
such as here a tree, there a brook or a 
bridge ; there a house ; there a shed ; there 
a well ; there a barn ; there the beginning 
of another road, &c. 

When the pupils of any school can copy 
from the black board, maps of the school- 
room, the school-house, and the road, and 
tell the points of compass with relation to 
each map, the teacher may require of them 
to draw on their slates, without having any 
thing to do with the black board, a map of 
their father’s house, or garden, or the road 
near it. Of course, neither he nor any one 
of his pupils may be able to correct the 
errors of each, in all particulars ; though it 
will usually happen that there will be some- 
body in the school who will be able to make 
the necessary corrections. The exercise, 
in any event, is one of the most valuable 
that can be given. 

From a map of the road near the school- 
house, they may proceed to a map of the 
other roads, not far distant, especially if 
there is any thing striking near or on the 
road ; as a church, factory, tavern, prison, 
or store. With the aid of the teacher, who 
must, of course, lead the way on the black 
board, the pupils of a school might be 


4:5 


taught to make maps of most of the roads 
and streets throughout the region where 
they were brought up, as well as of most of 
the fields adjoining them, near the school- 
house and their respective homes. 

The next step in the natural progress of 
things is to a map of the town. This is 
always exceedingly interesting to the young. 
For though it cannot be very large , on a 
single black board, nor so large on the slates 
as on the black board, yet there will be 
room enough, in general, for the principal 
public roads in town, with all the streams, 
large and small, and the lakes, ponds, and 
mountains, if any exist. This putting 
down the brooks and ponds, with which 
many of the pupils must be more or less 
familiar, is mot only exceedingly interesting, 
but it prepares the way for the right prepa- 
ration and understanding of other maps. 

From a map of the town, the teacher 
will proceed to draw a map of some three 
or four or five adjoining towns, with their 
own town in the centre. Further than this 
exercise it would, I think, be premature, to 
require the pupils to go. He may indeed go 
on and make a map of the county, the state, 
&c. ; but not as a lesson for the pupils, but 
only to prepare the way for the future. 

Before going so far as a map of the county 
in which the pupil resides, there is another 
.exercise which may be commenced here, 


44 


though it cannot or at least ought not to be 
carried to any considerable extent, until the 
pupil is fairly inducted into the study of 
geography. I refer to the use of dissected 
maps. In pursuance of the present plan, I 
would first draw on paper the outlines of 
the towns immediately adjoining that in 
which the pupils and teacher were, includ- 
ing of course their own town ; and then cut 
them apart, precisely on the town lines. 
These it should be the business of the pupil 
to bring together again into their original 
shape and relative position. 

At the same time, however, a map made 
by the teacher on the black board will be 
desirable ; for young pupils find it more 
difficult, at first, to put a dissected map to- 
gether than we may be aware ; and will not 
be directed too much, by the black board. 
Afterward however they may be required 
to unite them properly without the black 
board. 

They will not proceed far, in these various 
processes, before they should be required, 
one at a time, to come to the black board 
and draw maps on that, to be corrected by 
the class after they have finished. They 
should begin with the most simple ; because 
although they were able to do something 
more on their own slates, yet when called 
to stand before the whole school, and 
with the recollection too, that they may 


45 


be criticised by them, most pupils will be 
at first a little embarrassed. 

A dissected map of the whole county 
seems to be the next thing in order unless 
the county were remarkably large ; in 
which case I would omit it, and pass on to 
a dissected map of the States of the Union. 
The towns, unless in one’s own county, and 
that county of very moderate size, are such 
small divisions, that it is hardly advisable 
to attempt to put together the towns of a 
whole state ; except perhaps those of such 
small states as Rhode Island and Delaware. 

But I would not at once push the work 
of map making very far. I would leave it 
for the present, and attend awhile to writ- 
ing ; or rather to the formation of letters 
and words mechanically, 
d* 


CHAPTER V. 


WRITING ON THE SLATE. 

The first lesson in what I have here called 
slate writing — by which, however, 1 mean 
the mere mechanical formation of letters 
and words — is a lesson of oblique lines. 
They may be of greater or less length ; 
especially at different lessons ; but I have 
thought that, for beginners, about three-- 
fourths of an inch was sufficient. Thus, 


The slope and distance from each other, 
I should regard of more consequence than 
any thing else, especially the slope. After 
a few lessons of that sort,* from the black 
board, I would teach the lower curve of let- 
ters. In other words I would teach them to 

* This exercise was anticipated in Chap. II., so that a 
few lessons only in this place will be necessary. 


*7 


make the i or l, and also to join it, as fol- 
lows ; except on a larger scale. 

minim minim 

When pupils are familiar with the lower 
curve of letters, and can form the i t l b 
and u separately, and afterward join them, 
thus ; itlbu — or rather, thus ; iutlb — I would 
proceed to form the reverse of this — the up- 
per curve thus m and to join it, thus — 
Tllllllllllb This done, the double curve 
comes next, and forms a portion of the A, 
the m , the w, and the v. Lastly, I would 
teach the o; from which are derived, in 
part or in whole, c d e g q and x. 

They need not be troubled long, with 
these elementary lessons. They are better 
adapted to writing on paper ; to come in 
sometime afterward. Still I would proceed 
a while upon system, even on the slate. 
Where we lose nothing by being systematic, 
system is always preferable. It is valuable 
on its own account ; but it is still more 
valuable as a matter of mental disci- 
pline. 

When a child can form the greater part 
of the small letters, both singly and in 
combination, it will be well to employ him 
in putting words together. Writing the 
first elements — the /, i, r a, 0, and /—on the 
black board, the teacher should inquire of 
the pupils, from which of these he must 


make the letter i. Is it from the first, the 
second, the third, the fourth, or the fifth ? 
Being told it must be made from the second, 
he accordingly makes it, and then asks, Is 
it finished What is to be added ? 

Perhaps it is hardly necessary to say that 
the pupils should have time allowed them, 
in every instance, to write on their slates, 
what the teacher first writes on the black 
board. I mean, by this, that they should 
not be hurried too much. 

“ From which of these” the teacher asks 
“ shall I make the t ? Is there nothing to 
be added What is to be added ? How 
does t , thus made, differ from i ? Does it 
differ from it, in nothing except its length ? 
What do I call the turn of the i and t , at the 
bottom ?” (This question presumes that 
the terms upper curve, lower curve, &c. 
have been explained.) 

From which of them shall I make the let- 
ter m ? How many of each — the third and 
fourth — must I take ? Which must I take, 
and how many, to make n , w , v, h ? Is 
there nothing added to the fourth to make 
v ? What is added to make w ? W^hat is 
added to the third to make r ? What to 
the second to make l ? 

Here I would have a sort of review. 
How does m , differ from n ? Both letters 
should be standing on the black board when 
this question is asked. So should any others 


49 


between which the teacher attempts to make 
a comparison. How does w differ from v ? 
How does i differ from b ? How does i 
differ from the half of a u? How do i and 
l differ i How do i and t , &c. ? 

It is not difficult to show a pupil that the 
first half of the a d g and 9, with c and e , 
are essentially the same as the 0 ; the only 
difference, in any case, being derived from 
a very slight omission or addition. Nor 
will it be difficult, after a pupil has learned 
to form all the regular letters, such, I mean, 
as can be chiefly made from a few single 
elements like the „ foregoing, to teach him to 
make a few irregulars ; such as s, x , and z. 

Nor will there be much difficulty about 
the capitals . Even these, however, for the 
convenience of the teacher, may be classed. 
Thus three or four of them are essentially 
a part of the letter O, somewhat enlarged ; 
as C, E, G, and X. A still larger class, 
a very large one, are formed essentially from 
the main stroke of the I. Thus, B, D, F, 
H, L, P, R, S, T, and Z, are all of this 
description. Then A, M, N, and W, form 
another small class by themselves, which 
are soon and easily imitated. These three 
classes comprise nearly the whole alphabet 
of large letters ; there are only a very few 
irregulars. 

That which delights me most in connec- 
tion with these exercises is that instead of 


50 


being irksome to the pupils, they are to 
them, almost like pastimes ; and they are 
sometimes as sorry to have them at an end, 
as if they were really such. * 

Let it be remembered, however, that ,it 
is not so much the object — at least I think 
it ought not to be — to teach writing, as an 
art, on the slate, as to teach it in a sort of 
imitative way, in order to prepare the pupil 
for several other important exercises which 
should precede the exercise of waiting on 
paper. 

There is one exercise which if pursued 
simultaneously with the foregoing, would 
greatly enhance the interest of the pupil, to 
say nothing of the profit wdiich might accrue. 
I refer to* a little device sometimes resorted 
to — that of cutting out from paste-board, or 
paper, five or six elementary principles of 
letters, and requiring the pupil to combine 
them, to form letters. He must, it is true, 
have a considerable number of each '; but 
they are soon and easily made. By putting 
them together, however, I do not mean at- 
taching them to each other in any way, but 
simply laying them side by side, contigu- 
ous to one another, on the desk or 
table. 

The exercises of the chapters which fol- 
low, pursued according to the suggestions 
which accompany them, and taken along 


51 


with the elementary studies of this chapter* 
will be likely, in nine cases in ten, to make 
the pupils of a school very good writers ; 
better I dare say, without ever having, any 
thing to do in school with pen and ink, than 
the average of our common school writers. 
This is not saying that pen and ink should 
never be used, for they should, without 
doubt. But these exercises, instead of 
standing in the way of the subsequent use 
of pen, ink and paper, would, if studied as 
they ought to be, and as has been recom- 
mended, greatly facilitate the pupil’s pro- 
gress. Yet I still say that even if he should 
never receive any direct instruction of this 
sort in school, he could not fail, from such 
a long practice with his pencil and slate, 
and from such varied exercises, to become 
a very tolerable writer. 

If any one should doubt — I know there 
are a few who do — whether children will 
ever become good writers, from merely 
practicing on the slate, we need not refer 
him to Iceland, for proof, where all children 
learn in a manner not unlike that, and never 
or almost never in any way which is more 
systematic. We have only to send him to 
some of our schools for the instruction of 


* They have the effect of a daily review, in the matter 
of hand writing; and frequent reviewing the studies of 
school, is, as every teacher of much experience knows, the 
<jnly means of making much real progress. 


52 


the deaf and dumb, where many are to be 
found who write elegantly on slates, and 
who never yet wrote on any thing else. We 
have testimony on the same subject, how- 
ever, in Wood’s account of the Sessional 
School in Edinburgh, and in the Connecti- 
cut Common School Journal. I have my- 
self seen very young pupils, in common 
schools — say not more than six or seven 
years of age — : who already wrote a very 
good hand, on the slate* though they had 
never written a word with pen and ink in 
their lives. 

We are now prepared* as I trust, for the 
important school exercise of spelling. At 
present— I mean on the old system— we 
have but very few persons among us who 
spell well ; let us see whether slate and 
black board exercises promise any thing 
better. 


CHAPTER VI. 


SPELLING. 

Few things belonging to a good English 
Education seem to be of more importance 
than correct Spelling. I shall therefore treat 
of this subject at considerable length. 

As in other things, so it is in teaching 
spelling ; we may, first, instruct the whole 
school, at once ; or secondly we may instruct 
portions of it, as classes or individuals ; or 
thirdly, the instruction may be given by 
means of certain older pupils, acting on our 
behalf, as monitors or assistants ; or as they 
are sometimes, and not unaptly called word 
givers . 

The methods of teaching spelling, with 
the aid of slates and black boards, are al- 
most innumerable. I shall select some four 
or five only ; such as seem to me to be 
among the best. Those which I have se- 
lected, will be found applicable, to the ex- 
isting condition of most, if not all of our 
common schools. 

First Method. The teacher takes his 
position by the black board, with the whole 
e 


54 


school, or the class, as the case may be, 
facing him, and after ascertaining that he 
has secured the attention of all, proceeds 
with his chalk in hand, to write down a 
spelling lesson. 

But what shall he write ? What word 
shall he begin with ? For there is certainly 
a choice to be exercised ; it is not a matter 
of entire indifference what words are written 
down. It must be obvious to all who re- 
flect that the selection should be made with 
reference to the w T ants and capacities of the 
pupils. 

We will suppose, for the present, that 
they are just beginning to spell; having 
previously learned to read and write letters, 
and to make the figures used in Arithmetic, 
with a few of the simpler geometrical 
figures. In such a case the words of the 
lesson should be selected on the general 
principle of beginning at Jiome — i. e. with 
words with the meaning of which the pupil 
is already partially or wholly acquainted.* 
Such are slate, pencil, book, paper, stove, 
stove pipe, fire, coal, ashes, ink, inkstand, 
fire-place, hand, eye, ear, face, mouth, 
window, door, table, chair, wall, &c. Such 

* Some have thought lhat the first words selected for a 
child to spell or read, should be all short words — mono- 
syllables. But it has seemed to me otherwise. I know no 
reason why a young pupil may not as well and as easily 
be taught to spell inkstand or stove pipe, as a great many 
ef the monosyllables, which are usually presented to him. 


words as ceiling, and crayon, I would, at 
first, omit ; for although they are near 
enough, they are much more difficult, and 
may be deterred to a subsequent lesson. 

“ I will now write the word slate,” the 
teacher says. “ What letter shall I make 
first ? Let all who know, raise their hands.” 
Addressing himself to a particular individ- 
ual, the teacher says, “You may name it.” 
The pupil says “ S.” The teacher writes 
it, i. e. ift the printed form. “ What shall I 
write next ?” he says. The answer being 
obtained, in the same way as before, he 
proceeds to the next ; then to the next ; and 
so on till the wx>rd is wholly written. 

This is, indeed, a simple word, and a 
very simple process ; but neither the word 
nor the process is too simple to begin with. 
It need not be a shiv process, especially 
after a beginning is fairly made. On the 
contrary, it may be conducted, where all*, 
are attentive and interested, with very great 
rapidity. • 

But it may happen that a pupil will name 
a wrong letter. For example, in reply to 
the question, what shall be written as the 
fourth letter in the word slate, a pupil may 
say, i. “Is that right r'” the teacher in- 
quires of the class. Some one who raises 
his hand, in token of assent, may then be 
asked what letter ought to be substituted 
for the i. The truly ingenious teacher. 


56 


however, will often select, in his inquiry, the 
more inattentive or heedless pupils, in order 
to secure their close attention to the exer- 
cise.* 1 Or he may write the letter i, accord- 
ing to the wrong direction of the pupil ; and 
if no one should question its correctness, 
by uplifted hand, he may go through with 
writing the word ; and then after telling the 
class that a mistake has been made, or that 
he has been directed wrong, he may require 
them to correct it. 

He then proposes another word, as hand ; 
proceeding with it in the same manner as 
with the word slate. _ Though he should go 
slowly, endeavoring to have every process 
understood, he should nevertheless go strait 
forward, and avoid if possible, the loss of 
any time. The list of words may be ex- 
tended, as circumstances seem to require. 
The first lessons, ought by all means, to be 
short ; keeping in view the general and very 
important principle, never to fatigue or 
satiate the *pupil, especially when setting 
out with a new subject of study. When 
the lesson is completed, let each pupil copy 
or transfer the words from the black board 
to his slate. 

One or two important principles, in the 
beginning of such an exercise as this, should 

* When I any. often, I do not mean ahcays; lor this prac- 
tice would produce a set of evils which would tend to 
defeat its own purpose. 


v 


57 


never be lost sight of. First, the exercise, 
in all its processes or parts, should be sim- 
ple. Do one thing at a time , as much as 
possible. Let the propriety of using capi- 
tals, here or there, the character or quality 
of the hand writing of the pupils, with size, 
slope, and almost every thing else, be over- 
looked, at first, for the sake of simplicity. 
Secondly, be not too particular about clas- 
sifying or assorting the words with refer- 
ence to length, number of syllables, or any 
thing else. Classification is a work which 
belongs to a more advanced stage of pro- 
gress. 

Although the teacher should, in general^ 
confine himself to one thing at a time, } r etj 
after the school or class become somewhat 
familiar with the method, and with a con-) 
siderable number of words, it may be well 
to make an occasional departure from this 
rule ; more, however, for the sake of variety 
than for any other reason. 

Thus, suppose he were about to write 
down the word slate, as the beginning of a 
spelling lesson. He will say to his pupils, 
“ Now, in order to write the word, must I 
begin at the top or at the bottom of the black 
board ? Why at the top, rather than any 
where else ? You will tell me also that I 
must begin at one side of the slate ; now at 
which side ; the right hand side, or the left ? 
Why at the left hand rather than the right ? 
e* 


5 $ 


Must I write horizontally, or obliquely? 
(This last question takes for granted that 
the terms horizontal, &c. are well under- 
stood.) Must the word begin with a small 
s, or a large one ?” 

This, I say, is designed as a mere speci- 
men of the little departures which a teacher 
may properly make, at times, from his gen- 
eral rule of going strait forward. Any thing 
of the same general character with the fore- 
going, which while.it serves to impart in- 
terest, is also in itself instructive, will be of' 
evident advantage. 

There is another way of proceeding which 
may occasionally be resorted to. Thus, in 
the example above, the teacher, after having 
announced to the class that he is about to 
write the word slate on the black board, 
proceeds to write it, without asking any 
questions at first ; but writes it wrong. In- 
stead of slate , he writes slaet , or slait, or slat. 
Or instead of writing it horizontally, he 
writes it obliquely. The pupils are then 
called upon to say whether it is written cor- 
rectly ; and if not, in what respects it is 
wrong. So of any other common word ; 
as pencil, door, chair, table, coal, &c. 

It has been said that after the teacher has 
completed a list of words on the black 
board, the pupils should be required to 
transfer them to their slates. The object of 
this is two fold ; first to fix the orthography 


59 


of the word more firmly in the memory ; 
and, secondly, as an exercise in the art of 
writing. 

That the first of these results will inevit- 
ably follow, no one who is at all acquainted 
with children or with the structure of his 
own mind, will, for a moment, doubt. Noth- 
ing, certainly, is more common than for a 
child of good memon^ to learn to repeat a 
hymn or song, from beginning to end, 
merely by copying it. 

To secure the second result — that of im- 
proving the hand-writing — our pupils should 
be required, in copying any thing, to do it 
as well as possible. In writing down words 
from mere hasty dictation, it is true, this 
can hardly be expected ; on account of the 
difficulty, especially with children, of doing 
two things well , at the same time. But in 
mere copying, I say again, it is not only 
useful but highly desirable ; nay I might 
almost say indispensable. As a necessary 
preliminary, the word on the black board — 
the copy set by the teacher — should be 
written in the best possible manner. Marks 
of haste or carelessness, and above all of 
absolute incorrectness, cannot fail to have 
a bad effect. This seasonable hint to teach- 
ers, will not, I hope, be overlooked or for- 
gotten. Let them remember the maxim of 
Cousin, the French philosopher; “ As is the 
teacher so is the school and let them re- 


60 


member that the remark is applicable even 
to the hand-writing of the teacher. 

In this wav, that is by a species of review, 
will the pupil retain and perfect his skill in 
the art or practice of writing. There will 
be so many exercises in which he' will be 
liable to forget himself and write carelessly, 
that a special effort here and there, at least 
when merely copying something, will be 
indispensably necessary. 

Second method . This consists in pro- 
nouncing or dictating words to the pupils, 
to be written down by them, on their slates. 
In this exercise the use of the black board 
is not absolutely necessary; although it can 
be used, if desired. 

In pronouncing or dictating words, great 
care should be taken to give to every syl- 
lable, and even to every letter, its natural 
sound. In this respect there is a great deal 
of error among us, and it is likely there 
will be a great deal more, unless teachers 
beware of the bad habits in which most of 
them have been educated. 

One of the more common errors of the 
class to which I allude is that of spelling 
the words for the pupil, in the act of pro- 
nouncing them. It is by no means uncom- 
mon for teachers to pronounce the words of 
a spelling lesson in such a manner, that 
they cannot avoid spelling them correctly, 
if they would. Thus I have heard positive 


61 


and fugitive , pronounced pos-i-tive and fu-gi- 
tive. That is instead of giving the vowels 
of the second and third syllables of these 
words a short sound, they were sounded 
long. And worse than even this, I have 
heard the word above, pronounced ab-ove ; 
as if the o had its long full sound. 

Let all these and other kindred errors, in 
pronunciation be studiously avoided. Let 
every word be pronounced right, (that is as 
it should be pronounced in good conversation 
or reading,) whether the pupils spell it cor- 
rectly or not. And if, in dictating words to 
smaller classes, an elder pupil, or word giver , 
is employed, the teacher should be exceed- 
ingly careful that he does not lead them into 
errors of the same sort, or of some other 
kind. In general, these assistant pupils, or 
word givers, ought either to be drilled by the 
teacher before hand, or to receive from him, 
for their own use, exclusively, a written or 
printed list of the words they are about to 
teach. For this last purpose they may be 
permitted, at times, to select words from a 
given table or page of a spelling *book, or 
from a dictionary. £ 

- There are several wavs of ascertaining 
whether pupils write their words from dic- 
tation — that is to say spell them — correctly 
or not. One is by employing the word 
giver in going round to them all and exam- 
ining their slates separately, and comparing 


62 


them with his own, or the standard list. 
Another is, for the teacher to perform the 
same service. Another is, to have each 
pupil read over, or rather spell over the 
words, in an audible voice ; the teacher 
stopping him and making corrections, should 
any be necessary. Another way, still, is, 
for the teacher himself, to correct the list 
of the right hand or left hand pupil, (ac- 
cording to his own convenience or choice,) 
and then for that pupil whose slate he 
holds, to receive and correct the slate of 
his next neighbor; and so on, through the class. 

In general, however, it is better that the 
correctness or incorrectness of the pupils 
should be settled by some higher authority 
than that of a fellow pupil. On this account, 

I should prefer the second or third method 
of the preceding paragraph, were it not that 
as soon as the first scholar reads — that 
is spells — a word wrong, and the teacher 
alludes to the wrong and sets about correct- 
ing it, such of the rest of the class as have 
fallen into the same error will be tempted to 
change theirs clandestinely, to make it cor- 
respond to the true standard. If they would 
do it openly, the evil would be compara- 
tively trifling ; perhaps not an evil at all ; 
but it is unfortunate that we should tempt 
them in this way to do wrong. 

With a view therefore to the prevention 
of this evil, it may be well to adopt one of 


63 


the two following methods. Let the teach* 
er correct the slate of each pupil, without 
any communication with the other pupils; 
or let the pupils themselves correct the list, 
with the aid of a printed or written list, or 
a dictionary. The last method would be 
the better of the two, if every pupil would 
be as faithful and conscientious as he ought 
to be ; and if dictionaries were not almost 
as rare in our common school rooms, as 
pearls or diamonds.* 

But whatever the method which is pursu- 
ed may be, it is well to continue on the les- 
son till every one is thoroughly master of it. 

If there is any pupil who does not attend to 
it properly, or whose memory is defective, 
it may be well to put the particular words • 
which he cannot remember — for they will 
usually be few in each lesson — on a piece of 
paper or card, and carry it in his pocket a 
few days, recurring to it, often, till he can 
remember its contents. 

If, however, he is really faulty — I mean 
voluntarily negligent — it will do him good 
to write the words which he does not re- 
member on the black board, in view of the 
whole school, and suffer them to remain 


* Rev. T. H. Gallaudet, to whom the public are already 
deeply indebted for his efforts in behalf of the rising gener- 
ation, has recently prepared a dictionary expressly for the 
use of common schools. I have not seen it; but presume 
at once on its usefulness. 


64 


there till he can retain them in his memory. 
If compelled to have his faults exposed in 
this way a few times, there is reason to hope 
he will soon take care to avoid such expos- 
ure as much as possible. 

Third method . Another, and a most ex- 
cellent method of teaching spelling on the 
slate and black board, is by applying or 
framing words into sentences. In fact, the 
true orthography of some words can hardly 
be taught, to practical purpose, in any other 
manner. 

In pursuance of this method, the teacher 
first writes a series of short sentences on 
the black board, omitting one important 
word in each. The sentences may be either 
original or selected, according to his con- 
venience. The following is an example of 
the manner in which the sentences might be 
arranged on the black board. 

The glisten. 

The moon is 

Speak and plain. 

Books be kept clean. 

The is cold. 

Always truth. 

This list of words is long enough to illus- 
trate the principle, and give a clear idea of 
the plan proposed ; although for the use of 
a class of pupils, it might, if necessary, be 
extended much farther. The sentences 
should be written with great care ; and the 


65 


space left for a word be so conspicuous that 
no pupil could mistake its place. The black 
board being in full view, the pupils should 
proceed to copy the sentences, with as much 
exactness as possible. 

In the foregoing lesson, stars is the word 
which might supply the vacancy in the first 
sentence. But it would be too much, per- 
haps, for the greater part of a class of pupils, 
to both find out the appropriate word and 
spell it ; at least for a little time, at first ; 
the teacher should, therefore, proceed to the 
work of dictating, in succession, the words, 
stars , bright , loud , should , air, and speak. 
Other words might indeed in some instances 
make good sense, as, instead of air , we 
might insert weather ; and instead of speak, 
tell ; but the teacher will select those which 
appear most natural. 

The teacher should not fill the vacancies 
on the black board, too soon. But when the 
pupils have all filled out their blanks, on their 
slates, he may fill out his own, or make the 
corrections in any other manner, which he 
may deem preferable. 

I have said that the orthography of some 
words can hardly be taught, to practical 
purpose, in any other manner, except in this 
very way of incorporating them into sen- 
tences. The principal class of w r ords allud- 
ed to was those which are pronounced alike, 
but spelled differently. Of this kind are 
f 


66 


son and sun; coarse and course; ascent and 
assent , &c. These words are of every day 
occurrence, both in conversation and writ 4 
ing ; and therefore it is of very great im- 
portance that we spell them with accuracy; 
And yet perhaps there is no class of words 
in the English language, so often misspelled 
as this. 

Although I doubt not I have made the 


general plan intelligible, yet it may not be 
amiss to present one more example, involv- 
ing a few of the class of words now under 
consideration. Thus the teacher may write 
on the black board the following sentences i 
shines. 


The 

We 

My 

What 


on slates. 

, obey thy father, 
you? 

sky. 


The clear 
He fell down 
Always do 

is the staff of life 

The 


Which is the 
The 

Bring some 
the fire* . 

Now though these 


of a shoe; 

of the room ? 
contain blood, 
and place it on 


sentences should be 
carefully arranged, and the proper words 
dictated by the teacher, few pupils would 
probably be found able to spell them all 
right. And yet, I say once more, I know of no- 


67 


other way in which their orthography can be 
correctly taught by the instructor or learned 
by the pupil. They may, indeed, be com- 
mitted to memory, as they often are ; still 
it will require long, very long practice be- 
fore a pupil can, in every instance, make 
the proper application. 

After some time has passed, and the teacher 
has dictated the proper words to be supplied 
in several successive lessons, the pupils may 
be permitted to supply them in their own 
way. But this part of the exercise belongs 
as much to defining and composition as to 
spelling ; perhaps even more. Do not be 
hast}' in introducing it ; remembering still, 
the maxim, “ one thing at a time.” 

Let it not be objected that such a method 
of learning to spell is slow. I kpow it is so. 
Still it seems to me one of the best in the 
world — perhaps the very best — for practical 
purposes. Though a pupil advances, on this 
road, very leisurety, what he learns will, 
no doubt, be better understood and longer 
retained, than if the process were more 
rapid. It has at least two excellencies ; first, 
that it always appears to excite interest ; 
and secondly, that it teaches children to think 
and to write down their thoughts, as well as 
to spell. The only serious drawback upon 
its excellency is the pains it will cost. In 
respect to the latter, however, he who does 
not know that nothing valuable is to be 


68 


gained in school without hard labor, has not 
yet learned one of the most important secrets 
of his profession. There must be hard dig- 
ging in school, as some very quaintly call it; 
and a fact one of the great ends of all edu- 
cation is to teach the young to dig , both for 
knowledge and excellence. 

Fourth method . This is most happily 
adapted to those who have already made 
considerable progress in the art of spelling, 
although it may be used to some extent, 
with all. Its only peculiarity is that of 
classifying the words to be spelled. It will 
be recollected that I have spoken of classi- 
fication as not to be adhered to in setting 
out with the black board, but to come in 
somewhat later. 

We hav^no First Book for children that 
classifies words as much as seems to me 
desirable ; at least I have seen none. Mr. 
J. F. Bumstead, of Boston, has indeed pre- 
pared a series of two or three, which I be- 
lieve have been adopted in the Boston Pri- 
mary Schools, in which the words are to a 
considerable extent, classified ; and I have 
heard of one more, published elsewhere, but 
have not seen it. Nor am I over anxious 
to see such books, at least for the present. 
I am more anxious to see teachers able to 
render themselves (with the aid of the slate 
and black board,) the best spelling book for 
the pupil, which, for a time, he could pos- 


69 


sibly have. After we have learned the 
art of proceeding, for a time, with the 
last mentioned spelling hook , we may per- 
haps he able to make a wise use of some 
other kind. 

But what do you mean, I shall no doubt 
be asked, by classifying words for the young 
to spell ? I will endeavor to explain. And 
first I will speak of what might be called a 
natural classification. 

We should not only begin at home, with 
the known , in everything, and proceed grad- 
ually into the world of the unknown, but in 
our journeyings abroad, we should have re- 
gard to method. Especially should it be 
so, in our journeying abroad into the world 
of words which are found in our school 
books and in other books, as well as in the 
wilderness of objects, whose names and 
qualities the young are always so anxious to 
learn. 

* After a few somewhat desultory lessons 
have been given on the black board, the 
teacher should proceed to arrange the words 
of his pupils’ spelling lessons, according to 
order and method. It is true that in begin- 
ning with the words slate, hand, &c. as al- 
ready mentioned we observe one species 
of order or method ; but there is a plan to 
be described which is much more orderly 
and methodical, as well as more natural. 

One of the first lessons which should be 
f* 


70 


presented, under the new system of which 
lam speaking, should be the names of things 
in the school room. These should, at first 
and to some extent, be dictated, slowly, by 
the feacher ; and at the same time slowly 
written on the black board and corrected 
in the usual manner. 

From the objects immediately around the 
pupils and known to them, we may make the 
following selection. These are, for the most 
part, implements of the school room . 


slate 

table 

wall 

hand 

pencil 

pen 

window 

head 

stove 

ink 

glass 

body 

fire 

inkstand 

book 

stove pipe 

wood 

desk 

rule 

ashes 


This lesson would include the name of a 
part only of the objects near the pupil ; re- 
serving for a second lesson a few others 
whose orthography is a little more difficult. 
Here are a few of this second class, 
board knife key clock 

black board crayon dictionary ceiling 
door port crayon tongs shoe 

floor copy book shovel boot 

thermometer spelling book cloak hat 

One of the earlier lessons of words for 
spelling, however, may be the names of the 
various parts of the human frame. Mr. 
Bumsted, in his book entitled “ My First 
School Book,” makes a lesson of this sort 
the very first. Here follows a part of this 


71 


class or family ; such as seem to me most 
obviously proper, not indeed for a first les- 


son, but 

for a third or fourth . 


head 

ear 

temple 

toe 

neck 

cheek 

hair 

foot 

shoulder 

teeth 

back 

ankle 

elbow 

mouth 

breast 

skin 

arm 

lip 

side 

hip 

hand 

chin 

body 

loins 

thumb 

face 

leg 

chest 

finger 

nose 

heel 

wrist 

A subsequent lesson might 

be forme 

from the 
class, as 

more difficult of this 
follows : 

family < 

eye 

tongue 

knee-pan 

heart 

eye-brow 

throat 

tendon 

artery 

eye-lid 

palate 

nail 

vein 

eye-lash 

wind pipe 
stomach 

blood 

nerve 

fore-head 

flesh 

marrow’ 

skull 

knee 

bone 

muscle 


Now, I do not mean to say, that it is best 
to give so long a lesson, at once, as either of 
the above, at least in all cases ; though nei- 
ther of them is so far extended as to include 
the whole family to which it belongs. My 
object has been, chiefly, to show what I 
mean by classifying or grouping words to- 
gether. 

We may now proceed to other classes or 
families of words ; such, for example, as 
the names of the more common objects or 
implements of the kitchen, the garden, or 


72 


the farm. Perhaps the names of the more 
common flowers of the garden would make 
a list sufficiently long for one lesson ; re- 
serving those of the fields, forests, and 
hedges, for a subsequent one. 


Here are the names of some of the more 
common flowers of our gardens : 


rose 

marigold 

pink 

lady shoe 

peony 

lilach 

tulip 

violet 


hollyhock 
sun flower 
heart’s ease 
daffodil 


poppy morning glory 


The names of field and forest flowers 
might naturally come in next. The follow- 
ing are some of them : 


dandelion ivy lily may-weed 

buttercup laurel daisj' johnswort 

honey suckle woodbine clover barberry 

white wood maple strawberry apple tree 
magnolia cowslip thistle peachtree, &c 

The names of fruits might properly 
enough come next. Here, also, I would 
make a division of the foreign and domes- 
tic. The following are some of the first : 

apple plum strawberry mulberry 

pear quince raspberry blackberry 

peach grape whortleberry dew berry 

apricot currant bilberry muskmelon 

nectarine cherry gooseberry watermelon 

The names of foreign fruits, such as are 
in common use limong us, might follow. 


73 


In this list, however, we might perhaps in- 
clude nuts : 


orange raisin 

lemon prune 

citron date 

fig walnut 

persimmon chesnut 


almond pine apple 

Brazil nut peanut 
lime cocoanut 

banana 
pine apple 


The names of the birds most common in 
the vicinity of the school house, always 
makes an interesting lesson ; and if by 
birds is meant the feathered race in general, 
a division might be necessary, into domestic 
birds and fowls, and those which have not 
been domesticated — either of which would 
form quite a respectable list. After these 
might follow the names of quadrupeds, 
fishes, insects, &c. Indeed men themselves 
might be classed, in at least, one respect — 
that is according to their nation — as Eng- 
lishmen, Italian, American, Chinese, Hin- 
doo, &c. 

One additional suggestion to the teacher 
will naturally come in here. It is that in 
forming these lessons he will always find it 
useful to the pupils — exceedingly so — to call 
on them for aid. Thus suppose he is writing 
down on the black board the names of our 
domestic fruits. He has written the words 
apple, pear, peach, and perhaps a few 
others ; and now, whether he can recollect 
any more or not, let him call upon the class 
to recollect for him. “ I have written such 


74 


and such words,” he says, reading aloud 
what he has written ; “ now who can think 
of another f” If he sees the hands of a 
number of individuals up, he selects from 
them whom he pleases ; and these give 
him the information required. 

Suppose the lesson designed were a list 
of the names of persons— say of men only. 
Not indeed of all the men’s names which 
could be thought of, for that would make a 
list altogether too long ; but, for the first, 
a list of the scripture names of this sort. 
Let the pupils here, too, be called upon to 
lend their aid. Such a course would inter- 
est their minds ; and as it is easy to see, 
might be quite useful. 

So also in making out a list of quadru- 
peds, we might furnish our pupils with 
pleasant employment in recalling and giv- 
ing us names. The meaning of the word 
quadruped, as distinguished from biped, 
might and should be given, as we pass 
along; as well as the meaning of many 
other new and often perplexing terms. 

But we should not only teach our pupils 
to spell, correctly, the names of things , but 
also of qualities or properties. I refer here 
to the various colors, tastes, oders, &c. of 
the objects around us ; as red, white, black, 
sour, sweet, bitter, heavy, light, ugly, 
beautiful, offensive, fragrant, &c. 

Again, too, we may collect names ol 


75 


iions, as well as things and qualities. Some 
may be surprised at the phrase — names of 
actions. But what are verbs but names of 
actions; as walk, write, break, speak, _ lift, 
ride, See. ? But, on this part of my subject 
at least, a word to the wise will, most sure- 
ly, be sufficient. 

But once more ; the names of professions 
and occupations might form natural and 
interesting lessons for slate and black board 
spelling. The information, moreover, which 
\vould naturally come in, during the study 
of these lessons, is too important to be 
slighted. Take, for example, a list of 
human occupations, such as are most com- 
mon among us ; and with which it is to be 
presumed every pupil will be more or less 
familiarly acquainted. Here is such a list. 


Farmer 

gardener 

joiner 

carpenter 

miller 

baker 


tanner turner printer 

tailor butcher engraver 

physician cooper shoe-maker 

minister blacksmith weaver 

lawyer hatter spinner 

teacher painter housekeeper 


In order to fix the attention of the intelli- 
gent school master, for a moment, on the 
importance of this method of classifying 
words, let me present, in contrast with the 
above, the following lesson, — part of a les- 
son ra her,— from one of our old fashioned 
spelling books. 


76 


baker 

dial 

fever 

giant 

brier 

diet 

final 

gravy 

cider 

duty 

flagrant 

gruel 

crazy 

dyer 

focus 

holy 

crier 

draper 

fuel 

human 

cruel 

fatal 

glory 

icy 

Let the teacher, 

I say, observe 

for him- 


self and see if there is any natural bond of 
relationship between these words, or be- 
tween any two of them, as they now stand. 
What connection is there, for example, be- 
tween baker and brier 9 Or between cider 
and crazy 9 Or between giant and gravy 9 

It is not in one spelling book alone that 
this natural order of things has been over- 
looked ; it is in all, or almost all. This in- 
creases the necessity — already sufficiently 
imperious — of something more rational ; and 
especially of introducing to our schools slate 
and black board exercises. 

It is not indeed to be denied — no one at- 
tempts to deny it ; it is cheerfully conceded 
— that the slate and black board instruction 
which is here recommended, would cost a 
teacher a good deal of labor ; but what 
then ? Have we not found that every thing 
valuable on earth costs us labor ? But is 
not the kind of instruction to which I refer 
exceedingly desirable ? 

Had we a manual — a printed one I mean 
— from which the teacher might make his 
selections, at least a part of them, without 


being compelled to go through a dictionary 
and make the assortment for himself, it 
would greatly diminish, in no small degree, 
his labors. Such a manual would certainty 
be useful, although by no means indispen- 
sable ; it would be useful I mean to teachers. 

A difficulty may arise here, in the mind 
of the reader. Had we such a manual, he 
will say, the pupils could obtain it, as well 
as the teacher ; and whenever their lesson 
was taken from it they might be disposed 
to avail themselves, privately, of its use. 

But it should be remembered that even 
to do this would be better than down right 
idleness, or roguery. Besides, no teacher 
would be obliged to take any whole list or 
table from it. He might make his selec- 
tions, even from that. He would, at least, 
add greatly to the labor of any pupil who 
without attempting to think, should simply 
square his slate by the manual. Or at any 
rate the teacher could take away the man- 
uals, or forbid their use, just as he is accus- 
tomed to use his power in other cases. No 

E upil thinks of looking into his book to see 
ow the word is spelfed which the master 
pronounces, even though he has it in his 
hand, or under his arm. Or if any pupil 
were inclined to do this, no good teacher 
would allow it. 

A stronger objection to slate and black 
board spelling, in the manner I have recom- 
S 


78 


mended, may be brought by some ; and 
will appear, at first view, to have weight. 
Only two or three, it will be said, of the 
great grammatical classes of words — the 
noun, the verb, and perhaps the adjective 
— can be spelled in this way ; and those 
only in their simple or primitive form. 
What isXo be done with the pronouns, ad- 
verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and inter- 
jections ; to\say nothing of a great many 
verbs, adjectives, and nouns, which cannot 
easily be thus associated or classified ? And 
what is to become of a host of derivative 
and compound worqls ? 

As to compound words, there is usually, 
little difficulty, if a child can but spell the 
simple words of which they are made up. 
And in regard to derivatives, those should 
undoubtedly be taught by classes or fami- 
lies. I had reserved the teaching of primi- 
tives and derivatives for a fifth method of 
teaching spelling on the black board. It is 
however, in reality, little more than a modifi- 
cation of the fourth, of which I am now 
treating. Let us then consider it a few mo- 
ments. 

The teacher gives out, for example, on 
the black board, the two words able and 
press , and requires his pupils to collect, on 
their slates, as many of their derivatives as 
they can. Each then writes down on his 
slate, as many as he can recollect, either 


with or without a dictionary, according to 
the direction of the teacher. When they 
have done, the teacher adds, in some way, 
those which they have omitted. 

Here follow the derivatives of the word 
able ; or at least the principal of them. 


able enable 

ably enabling 

abler enabled 

ableness disable 

ability disabling 

unable disabled 


disability payable 

probably rateable 

probability tameable 

commendable saleable' 

curable taxable 

notable perishable 


A much longer list will be made — and a 
much more important one: — from the primi- 
tive word press. The following will, I 
believe, include nearly all. 


press 

pressing 

pressed 

presser 

pressingly 

pression 

pressure 

depress 

depressing 

depression 

depressive 

depressor 

depressed 

repress 

repressing 

repressed 


express 

expression 

expressive 

expressively 

expressiveness 

expressed 

expressly 

expressible 

expressness 

impression 

impressing 

impressive 

impressively 

impressible 

impressiveness 

impressibility 


compress 

compression 

compressing 

compressed 

compressive 

compressure 

compressible 

compressibility 

compressibleness 

incompressible 

incompressibility 

inexpressible 

inexpressibly 

inexpressive 

impressed 


so 


repression impressment 
repressive iaipressure 

In regard to the other classes of words 
alluded to, why should not the teacher give 
out to his pupils, the prepositions, the con- 
junctions, the interjections, the pronouns, 
and even the adverbs as so many separate 
lessons ? They are by no means numerous. 
Some of them, as the conjunctions, prepo- 
sitions, and interjections, are not too long 
for a single lesson ; while others, as the 
adverb, and pronoun might be divided.* 
It might be remarked, however, that if 
these last were never taught to the pupils 
of our common schools, they would be about 
as well off as they now are. In what spel- 
ling book do we find any thing like a com- 
plete list of all these words ? And where 
is the teacher whose ingenuity ever supplies 
them ? I could mention several of each of 
these classes, and many of the adverbs, that 
I never saw in the columns of a spelling 
book, in my life. Yet they are, almost with- 
out exception, highly important words, and 
of frequent occurrence and use. 

With respect to verbs and adjectives, 
there is more difficulty ; though, as I trust, 
I have shown very conclusively elsewhere,. 

* I have not mentioned the articles, a, an and the ; be- 
cause their number is so small and their structure so sim- 
ple. as to render them of no considerable importance ini 
a mere spelling lesson. 


the orthography of a considerable number 
of the more common of both of them may 
be taught on the black board with nearly 
the same ease as the' common and proper 
substantives.* With a little ingenuity, a 
teacher may group together, in natural fam- 
ilies or classes many more of them, most 
certainly, than he would, at first, believe to 
be possible. 


p * See the Chapter on teaching Giammar on the slate 
and black hoard. 


CHAPTER VII. 


DEFINING. 

There are numerous ways of teaching t^he 
definition of words by means of slates and 
black boards. Some of these have been 
involved, of necessity, in the foregoing chap- 
ter ; and were it not for pursuing, as much 
as possible, only one thing at a time, I 
should be inclined to recommend teaching 
spelling and defining simultaneously. In- 
deed in some cases and with very large 
classes of pupils, I have no doubt it may 
be well to do so ; but, as a general rule, it 
appears to me desirable to keep them sep- 
arate ; at least for a time. The methods 
of defining which are here recommended,, 
will, however, in some respects, be a review 
of the spelling lesson, just as that was a 
review of the writing lessons. 

The first method of defining which will 
be mentioned, consists in giving the pupils, 
on the black board, a list of skeleton senten- 
ces, which, after copying or transferring to 
their slates, they are required to fill up. 
These should, at first, be very simple and 
easy, like the following. 


83 


It is now o’clock.* 

Our slates are made to on. 

Our pencils are to with. 


The sun gives 
Water, when 
Boys wear 
Girls wear 
The eye is to 
The teeth are to 
The 

The nose is to 
The legs are to 
The color of coal is 
Snow is 


and heat, 
makes ice. 
on their heads. 


with. 

with. 

are for hearing, 
with, 
with. 


Shoes are to wear on our 
When people are they call a phy- 

sician. 

Horses and oxen are used to wagons 
and carts. 

Birds in the air. 

Carpenters houses. 

Bricks are made of 


This should not be regarded as precisely 
the same sort of lesson with one which is 
found in the chapter on spelling. There 
the teacher dictates words to fill the 
vacant spaces ; here the pupils are expected 
and required to invent them for themselves. 
That was, indeed, an introduction to this, 


* The insertion of this, in an easy lesson, especially a 
first lesson, presupposes what ought always to exist, viz. 
a clock, or time piece, in the school room. 


84 


but was by no means, the same thing. In 
truth most of the preceding chapters are 
introductory to the present, just as the pres- 
ent is to those which follow it. 

This method of teaching pupils to define 
words, without the aid, to the teacher, of a 
manual, will, I say once more, cost him 
much patient and persevering effort. And 
even with the aid of a manual, a good deal 
of judgment will be required in selecting 
the appropriate sentences and adapting 
them to the mental capacity and progress 
of the pupils. For. customs vary so much 
in different places that even the foregoing 
simple lesson, if found in a printed manual, 
would require, here and there, slight modi- 
fications. In some parts of our country, 
for example, oxen are seldom, if ever used 
for draught, but only horses ; or at most 
horses and mules. In others, the same per- 
son is both joiner and carpenter ; but is, in 
general, called a joiner. And so of many 
other things or customs alluded to, or in- 
volved in the selections. 

And as for escaping from hard labor, no 
teacher should expect it. In the present 
state of society, especially of schools, with 
every thing to do, and few tools or instru- 
ments to work with, and little sympathy 
from those around him, a teacher should, 
on entering a school, make up his mind “ to 
spend and be spent” in an employment 


85 


where he will receive very little either of 
1 sympathy or co-operation. Let him not 
expect even the friendship, or the gratitude 
of those tor whom he labors. But to resume 
the subject. 

After the pupils have been sufficiently 
drilled with lessons which require but little 
thought, inquiry or study, let them have 
such as are a little more difficult, yet by 
no means beyond their comprehension ; of 
which the following may serve as an ex- 
ample. 

Gold is of a color. 

The sea has a appearance. 

There are primary colors, 

is the staff of life. 

Always the truth. 

Think before you speak once. 

Quadrupeds are those animals which 
have l e gs* 

Bipeds have only legs. 

He that would die well, must first 
well. 

Animals that can live both in water and 
on land are usually called 

Honor and respect 

Cain his brother. 

Elijah was to heaven in a firy 

chariot. 

Methuselah was the man that ever 
lived. 

Do you 


your teacher ? 


-86 


Do you like to 
It is very 
Am I my 

If the blind lead the 


on the slate,? 
weather, 
keeper ? 


both shall 


fall into the ditch. 

Let this first method of defining be pur- 
sued long enough to lead the pupils to think 
for themselves. Deprive them, for the time, 
of all dictionaries, and if it were possible, 
of all means of communication with each 
other. I have elsewhere insisted, at sufficient 
length and with sufficient earnestness, on 
the importance of separate desks for each 
pupil, at a considerable distance from each 
other. Yet in spite of this necessary pro- 
vision, some will still need much watching, 
or they will avail themselves of the aid of 
their neighbors. Yet there is hardly any 
thing of more importance than to endeavor, 
at every possible step, to throw them on 
their own resources. 

When all have filled their blanks, and 
had sufficient time for reflection, the teacher 
should either examine their slates, separate- 
ly, or require an assistant to, do, it. If all 
are correct, why very well ; if not, let him 
fill out the blanks on the black board, and 
require them to make the necessary correc- 
tions. 

It may not be advisable always to require 
of every pupil that the word he inserts 
should correspond precisely with our own 


87 


intention. Thus in the phrase respecting 
carpenters, it is enough it* the pupil inserts 
the work make or erect, although build may 
have been the word in our own mind. 
What is not absolutely incorrect, or wrong, 
in such a case, should be considered as 
correct ; at least sufficiently so for the 
teacher’s purpose. 

The second method of defining, which, in 
the natural order of things ought to be pur- 
sued, is that of incorporating or framing 
words into sentences. Thus the teacher 
may give out a list of words like the fol- 
lowing. 


pen 

book 

moon 

carpenter 

hat 

ink 

fire 

stars 

boy 

cap 

pencil 

sun 

sky 

brick 

dog 

floor 


steam 

rock 

cat 

paper 

gold 

smoke 

eye 

hen 

slate 

silver 

stove 

ear 

duck 

hand 

water 

horses 

finger 

fish 

head 

fee 

bird 

shoes 

oyster 


This list is, of course, vastly too long for 
ihe first lesson of the kind ; but is given at 
such a length, that the teacher may have a 
clear view, in little space, of the plan which 
is proposed. 

The repetition of words which may be 
found in the lessons on the preceding pages, 
is not a matter of accident, but was intend- 
ed. It will be soon enough to give out a 
set of words with which they are less ac- 


88 


quainted when they have become masters 
as it were, of those to which they have al- 
ready been introduced. Let the teacher 
make all possible reasonable haste ; but let 
him remember, well, to “Make haste 
slowly.” 

This method of incorporating words into 
sentences is very simple, and when once 
understood, easily adopted by the most 
ignorant or indifferent pupil ; while it also 
gives scope to the more active minds and 
powers of the more intelligent and ingen- 
ious. It consists in merely taking the words 
of the lesson, one by one, and so prefixing 
or annexing other words to them, that the 
whole will make sense. Thus suppose the 
pupil has placed, near the top of his slate, 
the word pen, as below. 

pen 

Now by prefixing to it the word my , and 
annexing the two words needs , and mendings 
the sentence will of course read thus 

My pen needs mending . 

In this way pen becomes incorporated, as 
it is called, into a sentence. And so of any 
other word of the above lesson, and of the 
words of any other lesson which may be 
presented. 

Now is it not obvious, at a glance*, that 
no pupil, unaided, can thus fix, frame or in- 


89 


corporate words into sentences without be- 
coming master of their meaning? How 
can he ? He may fail of success, in his 
efforts, it is true ; but if he succeeds in 
performing the work assigned him, he cer- 
tainly understands at least one common 
meaning of the words he uses. 

In pursuing this course of instruction, I 
have sometimes found pupils, who, not sat- 
isfied with merely incorporating the given 
word, once , would relate quite a long story 
on the slate, and perhaps introduce it sev- 
eral times. All this repetition and effort is 
useful. Such voluntary efforts are a thou- 
sand times better for them than if the same 
thing were extorted from them in the form 
of task work. 

This part of my subject might be extended, 
almost indefinitely, by examples of lessons, 
like the foregoing ; but if I have succeeded 
in making the principle understood by the 
reader, is not one example as good as a 
hundred ? 

We come now to a third method of teach- 
ing — if, indeed, it should not be regarded as 
a mere extension of the preceding. It 
is to introduce into defining the classifi- 
cation which was mentioned * under the 
fourth method of teaching spelling. Thus 
in giving out lessons on the black board, to 
be incorporated into sentences, (after a lit- 
tle progress had been made in the second 


90 


method above,) we should take pains to ar- 
range the words in natural classes or fami- 
lies. A lesson like the following would be 
useful, including the names of some of the 
more common birds. 


sparrow 

robin 

wren 

swollow 

martin 

quail 

owl 


J a 7 

blue bird 
black bird 
crow 
hawk 
pigeon 


lark 

thrush 

snipe 

heron 

partridge 

woodcock 


humming bird 

linnet 

tomtit 

mourning dove 
whippoorwill 
canary bird 


Here a little more thinking will be re- 
quired than in connection with some of 
the preceding lessons, while it will be 
equally interesting, and still more instruc- 
tive. The same will be true of many other 
classes of words, even though they were 
small classes. The implements or instru- 
ments used in performing our various occu- 
pations would be useful. Take the occupa- 
tion of printer ; of which perhaps the teacher 
knows very little. He knows, at least, 
that in order to print a book on paper, there 
must be 


building 

room 

forms 

boxes 


type 

• composition 
paper 
ink 


press 

pressman 

proof 

proof reader, &,c. 


As most- children are unacquainted with 
the art of printing, few might be able to in* 


91 


corporate a very long list of words which 
relate to this occupation into sentences ; I 
have therefore made it extremely short. 

Of the names of the implements of hus- 
bandry, most children could make a good 
use of a long list. Thus suppose the lessoii 
were the following. 


plough 

harrow 

shovel 

axe 

oxen 

roller 

rake 

sickle 

horse 

hoe 

scythe 

grindstone 

yoke 

spade 

pitchfork 

saw 

harness 

chain 

cart 

hay knife 

fan 

riddle 

flail 

basket, &c. 


These, with a little instruction, most pu- 
pils would readily dispose of. Nearly as 
well would they manage the names of the 
tools of the carpenter, as 

bench axe chisel square 

vise broadaxe mallet hammer 

plumb line saw dividers gimlet 

Need I say that besides cultivating the 
thinking powers, and especially the faculty 
of association, we are all this while greatly 
enlarging the child’s vocabulary, and making 
him acquainted with the things and objects 
around him ? 

Suppose a pupil, in copying the word 
dividers , should say ; “ Sir, I do not know 
what a carpenter’s dividers are.” You will 
,of course inform him. In doing so, let your 
language and explanations be plain and 


92 


simple. The rest will listen. Are you not, 
by the information you give him, enlarging 
his mind ? This you will be better able to 
determine, when you come to examine his 
list of words. You will find there, if noth- 
ing more, at least the echo of your own in- 
structions. No great matter, however, if it 
is so ; your words have become knowledge 
to him. The evidence of this will appear 
in the correct construction of the sentence ; 
and the earnest desire, on his part, that if 
not correct you will make it so. 

A fourth exercise in defining, and the 
concluding one which will be mentioned — 
one which naturally brings the pupil upon 
the very confines of composition — is that of 
making out lists of regular definitions, some- 
thinglike the definitions of a dictionary, and 
arranged in a similar manner, and either 
giving them to the teacher for correction or 
correcting them from a dictionary. . Thus 
suppose the lesson to consist of the names 
of the more common human occupations, 
they are required to define them in the 
simplest manner which may be in their 
power. Let the lesson, for this purpose, be 
the following. 


hatter 

minister 

miller 

cabinet-maker 

tanner 

merchant 

druggist 

carver 

printer 

physician 

carrier 

gilder 

spinner 

attorney 

clothier 

house-keeper 

potter 

architect 

paver 

clock-maker 


93 


farmer joiner dyer watch-maker 

gardener carpenter collier shoe-maker. 

Care should always be taken, by the 
teacher, to have the words so written, on 
their slates, as may be most convenient to 
them with respect to the additions they are 
to make, in the form of definitions. The 
words of the lesson above should be written 
pretty near the left hand side of the slate. 

Now with this lesson before him, or a part 
✓of it, or of one like it, the pupil is first to 
define the word hatter . Well, he says to 
himself, a hatter is a person who makes 
hats. So he annexes to the word hatter , one 
mho makes hats. Then he procceeds to the 
second word. Here he is at a loss, per- 
haps, for a definition, i. e. at a loss which 
to choose between two — whether to say 
“ tanner, one who makes leather,” or “ tan- 
ner, one who tans skins.” Here is room for 
much thought, and perhaps, in the end, for 
remarks from the teacher, as instructive as 
they will be welcome. So of the next words, 
printer, spinner* &c. 

From words of this description the transi- 
tion would not be great to words of various 
sorts, more difficult of definition. Some- 
times a verse or paragraph from a reading 
book might be used for this purpose, and 
sometimes an anecdote. The anecdote or 
verse might be written on the black board ; 
,or the pupils might copy and add definitions 


94 


to such words only as they could ; omitting 
the rest. 

In short, to repeat what has been already 
repeated, nothing would be more foreign 
from the intention of these exercises, than 
an exact or servile imitation of them, in all 
circumstances. I have spoken of various 
methods of teaching from the slate and black 
board. I have expressed, freely and in* sin- 
cerity, the conclusions to which experience, 
observation and reflection have led m^ 
Yet it is by no means improbable that many 
a teacher might be greatly benefited by what 
I have said and shall hereafter say, who 
would not adopt one in ten of the particular- 
methods or exercises, which are presented,. 
He would be led rather, (and this is what is 
most desirable,) to originate plans and meth- 
ods for himself. Every teacher of spirit, in 
pursuing another’s methods, will be apt to* 
feel like David in Saul’s armor ; awkward 
and embarrassed. Let a teacher gird him- 
self in his own armor, and act for himself 
according to the circumstances in which he 
is placed, and the means and materials 
which he has in his power. Others may 
afford hints ; but others cannot think for 
him — cannot even, with advantage, originate 
for him, at least to any great extent. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


COMPOSITION. 

Few things in the whole compass of an 
English education are more dreaded by 
students, especially of our common schools, 
than composition ; and perhaps there are 
few things, which, after all, are so imper- 
fectly understood. Now what can there be 
in the nature of composition itself which 
renders it so irksome to the student, and is 
the cause of its being so often but imper- 
fectly understood ? 

They who have used the slate and black 
board in their schools, according to the spirit 
of the preceding chapter, will not long hesi- 
tate for a reply to this question. They know 
that there is no inherent difficulty about the 
matter, at all ; but that children who have 
ideas, can be taught to put them down with 
pen or pencil or both ; and that to do this is 
to compose. 

We have seen that the several successive 
processes of study on the slate and black 
board involve, continually, those which pre- 
cede them ; and have all the merit of re- 
views. Thus while teaching spelling, the 
pupil is, as it were, constantly reviewing his 


98 


writing, and becoming more and more per- 
fect in that branch. In defining he is not 
only reviewing his writing, but his spelling 
likewise. 1 

And now, in teaching composition, in the 
way proposed, the pupil will not only be 
attaining, ere he is aware, the art of expres- 
sing his thoughts, but he will also at the 
same time be perfecting himself in the 
branches which have already been attended 
to, viz. writing, spelling, and defining. — ■ 
Does any one suspect this to be, in any re- 
spect, an exaggerated statement ? Let him 
attend, then, to the facts, methods, and il- 
lustrations which follow; and I trust he 
will soon be freed from his suspicions. 

Nor let him be startled when I assure him 
that if a teacher has followed the spirit of 
the plans and methods thus far presented, 
not merely in a single lesson or two of each 
sort, but to an extent which has rendered 
his pupils tolerably perfect in each, they are 
already pretty far advanced in the art of 
composition. They may not have heard the 
word 9 composition from the mouth of the 
teacher ; but they are nevertheless able to 
compose. 

The exercises in defining, which have 
been recommended, are especially of this 
sort. Every lesson which requires the in- 
corporation of words into sentences, is a 
lesson in composition ; and a most excellent 


97 


lesson, too. There are no special lessons 
in composition, other than these, absolutely 
necessary. Observe, however, that I say 
absolutely necessary. There are others which 
are highly useful, no doubt. 

But, I repeat it, that if no special lessons 
in composition were ever given to a child, 
no one who should follow out the course of 
slate and black board exercises which are 
indicated in the foregoing chapters could 
fail, in the end, to be able to express his 
thoughts, on every subject, with his pen or 
pencil — yes, and with his tongue, too — far 
better than without them. F or it is not only 
true, as has been well said by Blair, that 
“ they who are learning to compose and ar- 
range their sentences with accuracy and 
order are learning at the same time to think 
with accuracy and order but also that 
both thinking and composing with accuracy 
and order tend, in their results, to teach the 
pupils to speak with accuracy and order. 

Framing words into sentences then, is the 
best elementary exercise in composition. 
But as the pupil becomes more and more 
familiar with the progress of incorporating 
them so as to make sense, the teacher can 
introduce, gradually, several other things ne- 
cessary to produce the best style of English 
composition. He can teach him how to ex- 
press himself 'properly , clearly , precisely , 
forcibly , elegantly , fyc. 


98 


After the process of framing words into 
sentences — one word into each — has become 
common, the teacher should, occasionally 
throw together, on the black board, a greater 
variety of words than has yet been suggest- 
ed, and require the scholars to make their 
selection, and incorporate into sentences 
such as they please. Perhaps he will find 
it convenient to assign to each of them a 
given number, say twelve or twenty. Or, 
in other instances, one scholar may select 
more, and another fewer of the words ; ac- 
cording to capacity ; one twelve, another 
eight, another fifteen, another twenty, &c. 

The reasons for this necessity are that 
so great is the difference in children’s minds 
that where a lesson of a certain number of 
words is given out to all, some will find it 
difficult, without hurrying, to get through 
as soon as others, or as soon as the time 
required, and their thoughts will not have 
free scope ; whereas if while the rapid pupil 
is required to incorporate twenty words into 
sentences, the one of slower mould has only 
twelve or ten or eight assigned him, he will 
be likely to do better justice to his own 
powers of thinking than he otherwise would. 

Indeed, more than even this is true. 
When a large lesson of words — say forty 
or fifty — is placed on the black board to 
give scope to the differing tastes of different 
pupils, one pupil will select a certain set of 


99 


them, another, perhaps, quite a different set. 
And we all know how much more cheerfully 
and successfully the mind will work when 
it is pleased, than when it is otherwise. 

Let the following be regarded as a mere 
specimen of the exercise to which I now 
refer. 


steam -boat apple 

brown 

door 

high-way farm-house red 

book 

store-keeper thrush 

swallow 

robin 

school room field 

ocean 

pencil 

school master walk 

tree 

bench 

fire-place peach 

bluebird 

island 

It is not without design that a 

number of 


compound words — a greater proportion than 
I have used in any former example — have 
been inserted in this list. Children are in- 
terested in their use, and should be intro- 
duced to them somewhere; and they are more 
or less used in every species of good com- 
position. 

As one method of teaching not only spel- 
ling and defining, but also composition, a 
teacher may give out a story or a descrip- 
tion of something ; from which his pupils 
may be required to exercise both their mem- 
ories and their judgments in relating and 
writing down as many of the words and 
sentences as they can. If a teacher fears 
he has not the necessary “ knack” or “ tact” 
for telling stories, he may read a story from 
a book or newspaper ; or what perhaps is^ 


100 


in some cases , better still, from the Bible. I 
might give a hundred examples of this sort; 
but one or two will be sufficient. 

The teacher may, for example, give out, 
briefly, the story of Paul’s shipwreck, on the 
island of Malta ; or as it was then called 
Melita. He may mention the former and 
present condition of the island ; how Paul 
came to be near there ; where he was going ; 
whom he had with him for company ; how 
many persons, &c. ; and having told his 
story, leave it to his pupils to recollect,, 
gather up, and put down such words and 
sentences as they can. Some will recollect, 
but very few, such as “A viper fastened on 
Paul’s hand or “ Paul was going to Rome 
when he was shipwrecked.” Others may,, 
perhaps, remember the whole story. 

Or he may describe to them the view from 
the top of Boston State House — the city 
with its tall spires ; the harbor, with its 
vessels ; the adjoining towns and villages ; 
Bunker Hill and its monument ; the islands 
and shores in and around the harbor, &c. 
&c. 

In either case, some pupils will remem- 
ber, but few words, while others will re- 
member many. In the last instance some 
one, perhaps, recollecting at the word 
Bunker Hill, an anecdote he had heard from 
his father, or some other aged friend, about 
the battle there, forgets the rest of the words 


101 


in the description ; or at least many of them. 
Others will remember and set down in their 
list 

island Brighton 

shore Cambridge 

coast Malden 

Roxbury Warren 


city 

spires 

houses 

churches 

harbor 

vessel 


Dorchester 

Chelsea 


war 

British 


monument 
Bunker Hill 
Charlestown 
State Prison 
Navy Yard 
steamboat 


The mere recollection and putting down 
of these words, I know, would be more a spel- 
ling and thinking lesson than any thing else. 
But let the pupils also prefix or add some- 
thing to each word. Let them, in fact, after 
making out their list, interweave their words 
into sentences, in all possible forms. No 
matter whether they relate anecdotes, or 
record passages of history which are lodged 
in their memories, or merely write simple 
sentences, descriptive or grave. All will 
be serviceable ; all will contribute to aid 
them in the expression of their thoughts ; 
all will swell the size of their vocabularies, 
and develope and enlarge their minds. 

Another method — if indeed it can be 
called another — is suggested by Mr. Bum- 
sted, in his “ Spelling and Thinking com- 
bined,”* and it is called by him “ Sentence 


* This might, with great propriety, have come in 
elsewhere, under the general head Defining. How- 
ever, it is not only an excellent lesson in defining, but so 
valuable also as a stepping stone in the art of composing, 
that I have determined on the whole to insert it in this place. 

i 


102 


making, or Culture of Thought.” He say 5 
what has been already in substance repeated 
in this work, that “ children like to fit tangi- 
ble things one to another ; and it pleases 
them to find that they fit well. So in regard 
to words ; with a little skill on the part of 
the teacher, this will be found easy and 
pleasant, even to very young scholars.” 

As an assistant to Sentence making, as 
he calls it, he has prepared a table in the 
beginning of his work. This table consists 
of a set of parts of sentences, such as “ I 
am,” “ I was,” “ He is a” — “ The ■ " — 
child,” &c. ; so arranged that the youngest 
pupil may see that some one or more words 
is wanting to make sense. There is one 
set of these parts of sentences fot e very page 
or nearly every page of the book ; and it is 
made the duty of the pupil to select words 
from these pages, and fit them into the parts 
of sentences. 

Perhaps I cannot present a better exercise 
for slate and black board composition, than 
one of these pages of words, with the cor- 
responding parts of sentences, and Mr. B.’s 
own explanations. 

The following is page 9th. 


eye 

stare 

talked 

eyes 

starer 

speak 

see 

stares 

speaker 

seeing 

staring 

speaks 

seen 

stared 

speaking 


103 


saw 

peep 

spoken 

sight 

peeper 

tell 

sights 

peeping 

teller 

look 

peeped 

tells 

looker 

mouth 

telling 

looks 

mouths 

told 

looking 

tongue 

say 

looked 

voice 

saying 

gaze 

talk 

said 

gazer 

talker 

saith 

gazing 

talks 

whisper 

gazed 

talking 

whispering 

whispered 


Now the part of his sentence table which 
applies to this, is as follows : 

The 

I can 

I am 

I have 

He is a 

His directions to teachers and others, in 
explanation of this plan for sentence mak- 
ing or composing are these. 

“ Taking the ninth page, the teacher says, 
“Let us see what word on this will do to 
have The put before it.” It may not be 
difficult for the scholars to judge and see 
where they can do it, and to read thus — 
The eye , The sight , The mouth , The tongue, 
&c. What words will do to have I can put 
before them ? Thev may discover that it 
will fit many, thus : I can see , I can look , 7 
can peep, &c. 


104 


“ The foregoing may be extended, thus : 
The eye of John. The eye of a needle. The 
eyes of our old grey cat. The eyes of sister 
Jane are very sore. Open the mouth wide. 
The mouth of the pitcher is broken. I could 
not speak without my tongue. We had a tongue' 
for dinner. 1 can peep through that hole. 

Again, on another page, he has among 
others, the words singing, whistling, crying, 
sobbing, shrieking, bawling, &c. ; while for 
one of the sentences, into which these words 
are to be incorporated he has The — child. 
By inserting the words above in the blanks 
of this sentence we have, of course, The 
1 sobbing child , The singing child , The crying 
child , The bawling child , &c. 

Now the book to which I refer is an ex- 
ceedingly interesting little book ; and if a 
spelling book of any sort were to be selec- 
ted for a child of mine, I know not at pres- 
ent of a better than this, in the English 
language. But every school which has an 
abundance of slates and black boards, and 
. an ingenious teacher who loves the school , 
can have the same sort of exercises, every 
day, without any printed books. The 
teacher, in such circumstances, can invent 
his own lesson. 

This exercise, however, as a stepping 
Stone to composition — if indeed it ought not 
to be called an exercise in composition it- 
self, which is the undoubted fact — has one 


105 


advantage over any thing which I have yet 
mentioned, viz : that having a list of words 
written down on the black board, a small 
set of defective or blank sentences will be 
sufficient for the work of incorporation for a 
long time. Thus, suppose the teacher 
should write on the black board the follow- 
ing list of the names of trees. 


hickory 

cherry 

oak 

mahogany 

maple 

white-wood 

chesnut 

pine 

elm 

hemlock 

ash 

sassafras 

bass 

ebony 


beach locust 

cypress magnolia 

poplar dogwood 

birch apple-tree 

alder sumach 

boxwood buttonwood 
fir logwood 


And then suppose, also, that he should 
prepare the following blank or partial sen- 
tences, and ask his pupils to frame as many 
of the words of the lesson, as they possibly 
could, into those sentences. 

The is beautiful. 

The — — ? r is very useful. 

Boards are made from the 

Shingles are made from — . 

We make rails, for fences of the tree. 
The tree has fruit on it. 


Would not such a table and set of sen- 
tences afford much pleasant and valuable 
employment to pupils of every age ? What 
though they did not know the uses of many 
kinds of these trees i Would it not lea, cl 
them to jnquire ? 


106 


But the teacher might take words which 
are still more common, such as the follow- 


ing. 

hat sing 

basket house 
talk bird 

write leaf 


bread 

dog 

think 

apples 

horse 

read 

city 

run 

hope 

coat 

speak 

fear 


Then for a part of a sentence he might 
take the following. 

I do not 

I can not 

He can 

The is large. 

I can fast. 

It is good 

How much interesting and intelligible 
employment such a small lesson w'ould fur- 
nish 1 And how useful it would be not only 
as an exercise in composition, but in defin- 
ing also, and spelling. Perhaps it would 
not be necessary for the pupils always to 
copy the long lessons of words in these 
cases ; but rather make a common use of 
the black board, and reserve the space on 
their slates for their blank sentences, and for 
other operations. 

I have spoken of what is, and what is not 
absolutely necessary in teaching, in our 
schools, the art of composing well. But 
whatever may or may not be indispensably 
necessary, there are two special exercises 
which are, to say the least, very convenient, 


107 


and useful ; for which the slate and pencil 
are as well adapted as pencil and paper 
are. I refer to keeping a journal , and letter 
writing . 

These two special exercises are so valu- 
able that, perhaps, I use too cold a word 
when I say they are very convenient. In 
fact I must consider them, in the education 
of my own children, quite indispensable. 

Keeping a journal is, I think, the first in 
order. In this journal — prepared of course, 
at first, on the slate — the child should be 
encouraged to write down his own thoughts, 
and to some extent his feelings ; not merely 
a single set of occasional ones, but as they 
recur from hour to hour. They need not, 
at first — indeed they should not — be exhib- 
ited to any individual but the teacher. 

I am quite at loss why this practice is so 
little in vogue in our best schools. In a 
few, I know, it is common, and in its re- 
sults very happy ; but in general it is as 
much overlooked, as if the thing were whol- 
ly impracticable. Nothing, as it seems to 
me, would, at a suitable age, and proper 
degree of progress, under suitable circum- 
stances, and under the direction of a judi- 
cious teacher, be more interesting to the 
pupils ; and few things would be more use- 
ful. It could never come to be considered 
in the light of mere drudgery-like writing 
on grave subjects, such as Politeness, Self- 
government, Good manners, &c. 


108 


Two or three things should be required 
in teaching composition, to which no atten- 
tion need be paid in the mere incorporation 
of words into sentences. For I deem it 
desirable to render those exercises as simple 
as they can possibly be made. 

The first thing to which I refer is a cor- 
rect use of capital letters. The right use of 
these can hardly be learned by rules ; it is 
best acquired by long practice. Perhaps it 
will be well for the teacher to give examples 
of their mis-application, as a means of ex- 
citing interest and rendering their right 
use more obvious, and the whole subject 
more intelligible. 

The second thing referred to is the right 
disposition of words in the line . Some 
crowd their words too much ; others leave 
too much space between them. Some leave 
no marginal space on the slate or paper; 
others leave too much ; and others again 
have their space very irregular. A due at- 
tention to these small matters adds greatly 
to the beauty of both slate writing ancl 
writing on paper. 

Another thing there is, which deserves 
more attention than all else which I have 
named in these paragraphs; it is the punc- 
tuation. We should not be tedious with 
the young; and yet a correct punctuation 
of what they write is highly desirable, and 
may he gradually obtained. It is especially 


109 


desirable in letter writing. My own rule 
is, to punctuate in such a manner as to make 
what I write, mean what I intend to have it 
mean ; and I know not whether I am gov- 
erned by any other rule. But children can- 
not be governed, even by this rule ; much 
less by rules which are still more arbitrary. 
I would, therefore, endeavor to secure the 
point by long practice ; in doing which the 
black board and the slate will subserve a 
valuable purpose. The mechanical use of 
these marks, so far as they may be justly 
said to have' a mechanical use is also sooner 
and more easily acquired on the black 
board, than in any other manner. 


CHAPTER IX. 


READING. 

No complaint in relation to common 
schools is more general than the want of 
suitable reading books. Children, it is said, 
do not understand what they read ; and 
when they do partly understand it, their 
knowledge is so imperfect, that they cannot 
read in a natural and proper manner. 

There is much reason for this complaint. 
The great, or at least the fundamental rule, 
in regard to reading is ; “ Read as you 
talk.” But it is impossible to comply with 
such a rule as this, in regard to one in 
twenty of the lessons in reading which we 
present to our children. They should be 
able not only to read and understand, at a 
glance, the words they are about to utter, 
but also to see forward several words be- 
yond those which the}' are reading, and 
perceive the connection or relation, and the 
meaning of both. 

I am aware that there is a great differ- 
ence in school books. Some few which have 
been prepared of late years, are certainly 


Ill 


preferable to Scott’s Lessons, the English 
Reader, and the American Orator. And 
vet not one that I have seen is so well 
adapted to the wants of beginnersyas could 
be wished ; nor do I know that a First book 
can be prepared which would be, in every 
respect, what we need, unless' those who are 
to use it, have first been disciplined, pretty 
well, on the slate and black board. 

But what is the kind of slate and black 
board discipline in reading which is requis- 
ite, as a preliminary to the use of reading 
books This it will be my object in the 
present chapter, to point out. 

It has been seen that both in Spelling 
and Composition, the pupil will be led to 
the formation of sentences, and sometimes 
long ones. Indeed, it has been already ob- 
served that some of the more ingenious, or 
more advanced, in elder classes, will not 
only form simple sentences, but even write 
out anecdotes, of considerable length. I 
have known a boy ten years of age to write 
out on his slate an anecdote, equal in length 
to nearly a whole page of an ordinary read- 
ing book. 

The slate and black board method of 
teaching reading, then, has this peculiarity 
and excellence, that each pupil, at hi-s first 
attempts, reads only his own thoughts, as 
he . has put them together in the construction 
of bis sentences. In this way he must of 


112 


necessity, understand what he reads ; and 
his reading if properly conducted, in other 
respects, must be intelligible to others. 

Let us suppose the following list of words 
to have been given out on the black board 
with a request that the pupils would incor- 
porate them into sentences or stories of their 
own construction. It is a list of the names 
of various sorts of buildings. 


dwelling house factory 
church shop 

school house store # 

tavern barn 


shed 

wood house 


This, to be sure, is to be presented pri- 
marily as an exercise in composition ; and 
is given to the whole class or school indis- 
criminately. True, they are not compelled 
to frame or incorporate into sentences every 
word of the lesson, unless they haye time 
enough, or are disposod to do it. But what 
they do incorporate, in this wa} r , it is ex- 
pected they will incorporate so accurately 
as to be willing to exhibit the results of their 
efforts on the black board. 

Perhaps the first pupil, incorporates the 
words into sentences in the following man- 
ner. 

“ The churchy in this village, has a very 
tall steeple. 

A church is usually much larger than a 

* Shop and store are used in this way, almost univer- 
sally, in New England. 


dwelling' house, because it is made to hold 
more people. 

Our school house is painted red, and has 
a turret. 

There is a cotton factory in the north east- 
ern part of this town, and an axe factory in 
the south part. 

We have in a shoe maker’s shop, 

and also a carpenter and joiner’s shop . ’ 

I always like to go into a book store ; for 
I love too see the books, even if I do not 
buy them. 

There is a bam in this town which is cov- 
ered with straw. 

What a long shed for horses and carriages, 
there is back of the church ? 

I wish we had a wood house belonging to 
this school house ; or at least a shed. 

Mr. Roberts keeps the only tavern we 
have in our village.” 

These sentences may- be thought too 
learned to be the production of very young 
pupils. And yet I can truly say, that I 
have known pupils of from seven to ten 
years, whose efforts, and indeed almost 
their first efforts — I mean in preparing sen- 
tences for reading — indicated quite as much, 
intelligence, as the above sentences. 

But suppose the pupil who has formed 
these sentences, is called out to write one 
or more of them on the black board, and 
then read it before the school ; is there a 

j 


114 


doubt that he would read it intelligibly ? 
How could he do otherwise ? Let it be, if 
you please, the second of them. In ordi- 
nary common school reading, such a sen- 
tence, from beginning to end, or at least till 
we come to the last syllable, would be read 
in a straight line, as it were, without rising 
or falling inflection, and without emphasis ; 
in other words, it would be read in a cold, 
unintelligible, monotonous manner. 

But would it be read thus by the pupil 
who had formed it for himself? Would he 
stand at sixes and sevens, while reading it? 
Would he be lound now resting on this leg; 
now on that ; now inclining his head this 
way, perhaps casting a sideways glance at 
something or somebody in another part of 
the room — and now resting it on the oppo- 
site shoulder ? Would not the eye be at 
least partially lighted up, while he should 
give us the reason — important to him, how- 
ever common place to us — why churches 
should be larger than dwelling houses? 
Would every word and every syllable be 
pronounced in the same tone or pitch of 
voice till he come to the last, from which 
he would suddenly fall, as if into a ditch or 
slough? Would not church and dwelling 
house, and above all people, be pronounced 
with more force, or in other words with 
more emphasis than the smaller and less 
important words between them ? It is im- 


possible it should not be so ; and hence we 
see, at once, the superiority of this kind of 
reading lessons. 

The superiority of this method of teach- 
ing reading, however, in one or two 
respects, is not wholly seen at the first 
glance. It demands a few moments of re- 
flection. 

While children, at school, are learning to 
read in the ordinary manner, there is so 
little which they can understand, or rather 
which they do understand, that they form 
the habit of reading every thing in the same 
monotonous manner, whether it is in their 
power to understand it or not not ; and this 
habit often adheres to them through life. 
There are multitudes, among us, who often 
read whole pages — I had almost said whole 
volumes — without attaching any ideas to 
them, except that the monotony of feeling 
and thought is broken in upon, here and 
there, by something particularly exciting. 
The scriptures often speak of having eyes 
and seeing not, ears and hearing not, &c. ; 
and it is really true of many persons who 
were taught in our common schools, that 
they go through life, so far as their mere 
reading is concerned, very much in this 
condition. They read over page after page, 
in the most unintelligible — and if they read 
aloud, in the most monotonous — manner, 
and scarcely know that they have been 


Ilf) 


reading. Or if the mind is not wholly ab- 
sent, it is so loosely attracted to the subject 
before it, that the slightest cause is sufficient 
to turn it aside, or divert it from its mill- 
horse track. 

On this subject, as well as many others, 
I can speak with feeling, for I speak from 
sad experience. Hardly a day of my life 
passes, even at this advanced period of it, 
in which I do not detect n^self in this very 
condition, that of having eyes and seeing 
not, and having ears and hearing not. I am 
most mortified, however, in reading the 
Scriptures ; for partly as the result of this 
self same cause, and partly on account of 
the neglect of my teachers to explain what 
ought, in reading such a book, to have either 
been explained to me or omitted, I am 
more in the habit of reading the Bible in 
a monotonous manner than any other book. 

Nor is it to reading, merely, that the mo- 
notony extends. We are the more likely — 
from this habit of monotony — to do other 
things in the same monotonous manner. 
Our habits are like ourselves, of a herding 
character. Monotony and stupidity in doing 
one thing, are apt to be followed by monotony 
and indifference in other things. So that 
the wretched manner of reading which so 
extensively prevails in our schools, is after 
all, no very trifling matter. 

But to return to our illustrations. Not 


117 


only should the pupils, after forming their 
sentences, be required to write them on the 
black board and read them in the hearing 
of their companions, but they should be 
criticised by them. By this I mean that 
each pupil of the class or school should be 
permitted to correct any defects in his read- 
ing which he might observe. 

This is not said in ignorance of the fact 
that there are pupils in every school who 
are liable to abuse this privilege and become 
hypocritical, or fond of criticising for the 
sake of criticising. But the teacher would 
of course have the stall* of power in his own 
hands, and could call on whom .he pleased 
to make the corrections or criticisms. He 
would be likely, in general, to call on those 
who would make the best use of the permis- 
sion. 

To introduce this last exercise, I have 
been accustomed to read wrong, by design ; 
and ask my pupils to correct me. As a 
mere introduction to the exercise, I still 
think this may be well ; but in many cases, 
there will be errors enough which are real, 
without resorting to artificial ones. 

The corrections may have reference to 
every thing which pertains to good reading. 
The pupils should be taught to observe, in 
the first place, whether he who reads his 
sentence reads loud enough. Sometimes 
his voice will be too high, sometimes in too 

j* 


118 


low a key. In general, except in cases and 
circumstances so rare as to form mere ex- 
ceptions to a general rule, the voice in read- 
ing should be natural ; that is at the usual 
pitch of the individuals ordinary conversa- 
tion. 

“ He did not,” says one pupil, “ articu- 
late the letter b plainly enough, in the word 
because ; or if the b was sounded, it was 
not sounded distinctly.” “ He read too 
fast, I think says another who is asked to 
give the result of his observations. Will 
you come then and stand at the desk and 
read it ? the teacher will perhaps say ; and 
thus show .us how fast we ought to read ? 
Sometimes, indeed, a pupil may be permit- 
ted to read the sentence without leaving his 
seat ; but in general there is an obvious 
advantage in requiring him to go to the 
black board, and read it. 

“ He pronounced the word usually ,” -says 
one, “as if it was spelled ushally ;” that is 
with only three syllables.” In such a case 
there is nothing better than to require the 
pupil who makes the criticism, to read the 
sentence himself, and give to each and every 
word and syllable what ought t-o be its true 
pronunciation and sound. 

These criticisms should be extended to 
the most minute errors — not indeed at once, 
but gradually. There is no way, so far as 
I -know, in which such rapid progress can 


119 


be made in this most important art — the art 
of reading — as the one before us ; provid- 
ed, I mean always, it can be conducted in 
a proper spirit. 

For example, in reading the sentence, 
** There is a barn in this town which is cov- 
ered with straw,” a careful critic would be 
apt to detect many errors. One pupil would 
be likely to omit to pronounce the first h in 
the word which ; or at least to pronounce it 
so faintly that its place in the word could 
not be perceived. Another will not sound 
the thj in the word this , with sufficient dis- 
tinctness. Another will give a flat or nasal 
sound, to the dipthong ow, in the word&mw. 
This last fault is very common among us, 
both in speaking and reading, and deserves 
considerable attention. It is indeed a small 
thing, but we have quite too many small 
errors in our schools ; and it is time some 
of them were removed. 

But these corrections may extend farther. 
They may extend to the tones, inflections 
and pauses. In fine, whatever pertains to 
good reading may, in its own time and 
place, come under consideration. 

Let us recapitulate some of the advant- 
ages of this method of teaching the art of 
reading. 

1. The dislike of books, which is very 
common among the young, is in this way 
prevented. Having never been imposed 


120 


upon them, in connection with tasks, they 
have no more reluctance to them, than to 
any thing else* Nay, more than this, the 
slate and black board exercises, will be a 
certain means of inducing them to love 
books and study both, whenever we shall 
see fit to introduce them. 

2. They will be saved the acquisition of 
many bad or slovenly habits, as the habit 
of holding books badly ; of thumbing and 
soiling them ; and above all, of having their 
eyes on them, and pretending to read or 
study, when their mind and heart are some- 
where else. 

3. The habit will be prevented — already 
so fully alluded to — of reading in a monot- 
onous manner. This single acquisition is 
worth more than all the pains it costs. 

4. Much expense for books will thereby 
be saved. This should always be urged 
on those who object to procuring slates and 
pencils for all their young children, on ac- 
count of the expense. They should be 
shown that instead of causing them unne- 
cessary expense, it saves them, in the course 
of the education of a large family of chil- 
dren, many dollars. 

5. By furnishing employment to the pu- 
pils, it saves — like all other slate and black 
board exercises — the necessity of a large 
share of the punishment which it is now 
usual to inflict in school ; as a considerable 


1*21 


part of this evil is known to have its origin in 
the want of suitable employment. 

6. And lastly, by preventing the necessi- 
ty of inflicting degrading punishments, and 
by promoting, in various other ways, the hap- 
piness of the pupils, it has a better moral 
tendency, than the usual array of books. 

To those who think a pupil is skilled in 
the art of reading, in proportion to the num- 
ber of pages his class are accustomed to 
read daily, these slate and black board ex- 
ercises, will, I know, be thought objection- 
able. Such persons, however, should re- 
member that if long lessons in reading were 
really necessary, they could be attended to 
afterward ; and to how much better pur- 
pose, after this drilling than before, they 
best know who have tried them. But they 
may be assured they are not necessary . 

Nor is it necessary, in order to make a 
good or perfect reader, that the pupil should 
be accustomed, as many suppose he should 
be, to read Pitt’s, O’Connell’s, and Web- 
ster’s speeches ; and Blair’s, Chalmers’, 
Beecher’s, and Channing’s sermons. How 
sad has been the mistake of those parents 
and teachers who have supposed that if 
children were set to reading such lessons as 
these — so excellent — they would, inevitably , 
become good readers. That there was 
an influence — they hardly knew what, or 
how to define it — to be derived from read- 


122 


Ing over and over, from day to day, the 
great thoughts of great or good men, which 
could not fail to wofk out in the end, for the 
most part, good readers ; and that where 
there was a failure, it was owing to the 
condition — the imperfection I should say — 
of humanity. 

Yet such parents and teachers there have 
been ; such in fact there are still. I wish 
they were not even numerous. Some such 
will, I fear, array themselves in opposition 
to slate and black board exercises, especial- 
ly in reading. But let such persons wait, 
with patience, the issue of the experiment, if 
it seems to them like a mere experiment. 
The old system has been tried a good while, 
and we have seen its fruits. Let us try the 
new system a few years ; and see how it is 
with our pupils then. 

For myself, I have never had a doubt of 
the vast superiority of the new mode. I 
have spoken as if it might be regarded in 
the light of an experiment. But, to me, 
the experiment has been tried, and in this 
chapter I have been recording its results. 

There is hardly a pupil in our common 
schools who will not learn to read more, by 
spending half an hour or an hour daily on 
one or two or three short sentences, which 
he prepares for himself, than in reading 
over, in haste, as many pages of that which 


123 


he neither understands nor cares any thing 
at all about. 

Let not the idea be rejected that our pu- 
pils are best fitted to make their own early 
reading lessons. Nothing can be better sub- 
stantiated ; nothing is, as I conceive better 
established. Let the trial be made fairly, 
and in good faith, and I am sure every one 
concerned in it will rejoice at the results. 

Whether it will be best to teach our 
pupils — in the end — to read the sermons 
and orations of the able and excellent men 
of past and present times, in both hemis- 
pheres, is a question for after consideration. 
If, however, children of five or six or seven 
years of age can form reading lessons for 
themselves which are superior — in their cir- 
cumstance — to any other, it is difficult to 
see any reason why they may not do the 
same when they grow older. For as they 
advance in knowledge the lessons they pre- 
pare will advance accordingly. Still it may 
be well on various accounts, to read other 
men’s thoughts as a class exercise ; at a 
more advanced period of their pupilage. 


CHAPTER X. 


ARITHMETIC* 

It may be thought by some that the in» 
troduction of black boards into many of orn* 
schools already, and their frequent use in 
the study of arithmetic, especially when vis- 
itors oomc in, will preclude the necessity of 
saying much under this head. Yet is it not 
a fact that, even in the study of arithmetic, 
the use of this highly important instrument 
is almost wholly over looked, at least prac- 
tically ? Is it not common for teachers, 
after a little attention to it, at first, to lay it 
aside, and proceed much in the way to 
which they have always been accustomed ? 

This, however, should not be so. Nothing 
can be more convenient or more useful in 
the study of arithmetic, by classes, than 
slates and black boards, especially the lat- 
ter. I speak here, moreover, of teaching in 
the usual way of our best schools. I think, 
however, that there is a more excellent way 
of teaching arithmetic. 

Arithmetic is no doubt one of the first 
exercises to be presented to the youthful 
mind. I am not about to say at what age 


125 


this or any other branch should be com- 
menced ; the giving of such directions forms 
no part of my present purpose. What I 
say is, that whenever the work of inculcat- 
ing the sciences is begun, that of arithmetic, 
to a certain extent, should receive our ear- 
liest attention. 

It has been usual, of late years* to extol 
mental arithmetic. Now it would be fool- 
ish for me to condemn what has been so 
highly commended by many wiser men ; 
and yet I cannot help thinking sensible arith- 
metic — arithmetic which is addressed , I 
mean, to the sewses-^should go before and 
accompany what is called mental arithme- 
tic. For want of this* much, I fear, that is 
done in our primary and common schools, 
under the idea of studying mental arithme- 
tic, is of little practical utility. 

What does it avail a child, for example* 
to be able to solve* almost instantly, as 
many can, such a question as the following ; 
found in Colburn’s Mental Arithmetic. 

“From Boston to Roxbury it is three 
miles ; from Roxbury to Dedham, six miles ; 
from Dedham to Walpole* eleven miles ; 
from Walpole to Wrentham, four miles ; 
from W rentham to Attleborough* four miles ; 
from Attleborough to Pawtucket, nine miles ; 
from Pawtucket to Providence* four miles ; 
how many miles is it from Boston to Provi- 
dence ?” 


k 


126 


For although there is no great difficulty 
in reckoning up three, six, eleven, four, 
four, nine, and lour, and finding that they 
all make forty-one, yet what does the child 
know after having done this, which he did 
not know before ? You say, and you say 
justly, perhaps, that he knows it is 41 miles 
from Boston to Providence ; and you may 
possibly tell me that he knows the various 
distances of the places between, from each 
other. But is there any real knowledge in 
all this ■? Might not a parrot be taught to 
say it is 41 miles from Boston to Provi- 
dence ; or it is four miles from Wrentham 
to Attleborough ? And yet what evidence 
should we have that either the child or the 
parrot had any clear ideas of the distance 
between Boston and Providence, and of that 
between Wrentham and Attleborough ? — 
How can a person get any ideas from the 
words four miles, or forty-one miles who 
knows nothing about the meaning of one 
mile ? Yet i am much mistaken if one 
pupil in ten has any thing like a correct 
idea of distance — miles, rods or furlongs — 
yards, feet, or inches. 

There is a work to be done preliminary 
to all this ; and, indeed, preliminary to all 
other processes in mental arithmetic. In 
the performance of this work, the slate and 
black board may render us a very import- 
ant service. They do not, indeed, give u« 


127 


sensible objects themselves to compute ; 
they do not furnish us, as in the foregoing 
case, the hills and vales, and level ground 
of which a mile, or even a yard of the 
earth’s surface is made up, and say to us ; 
Here is a mile, or a yard, as the case might 
be. Still they furnish us with something 
like a substitute for the objects with which 
they cannot furnish us. 

A child who has not learned it at home 
already, can learn from the black board 
and the slate — i. e. with the teachers aid — 
how much an inch is, and how much a foot 
and a yard are, respectively. And having 
found out how much a foot and a yard are, 
and become familiar with them in their ap- 
plication to objects in the room, especially 
the floor of the school room, it is not diffi- 
cult to show him, by repeating the yard 
five and a half times, on the floor, how 
much a rod is. This is as far as we can 
go within the school room, and as far, in this 
particular exercise, as the slate and black 
board will accompany us. 

Now in order to understand clearly how 
much a mile is, the child ought to make the 
distance of a rod his measure, and apply 
it to the play ground, the common, the road 
near the school house, and in fine to several 
different roads or streets. He finds, per- 
haps, that the play ground is ten rods long ; 
the common forty ; the road adjoining the 


128 


school house, in its straight part, before it 
comes to a bend, just eighty. This he may 
be told is a quarter of a mile ; and if he 
knows how much a quarter of a thing is, it 
is easy, by repeating this, in some way 
four times, to get the idea of a mile ; espe- 
cially if some road is shown him which is 
just four times as long as the portion which 
he already knows is a quarter of a mile. 

Perhaps the elementary ideas which a 
pupil needs in order to be able to talk intel- 
ligibly in the study of arithmetic — or in fact 
in any thing else — about miles , are among 
the most difficult, (except perhaps years,) 
which could be mentioned. Yet, they must 
be acquired, or the pupil is talking about 
that which has no meaning, to him. 

The elementary ideas which go to make 
up a pound, or a bushel, or a barrel, or a 
dollar, are confessedly much more easy to 
be obtained; though children seldom obtain 
correctly even these. What child has any 
clear and definite idea what relation a cent 
or ten cents have to one hundred cents, or a 
dollar ? or an ounce to a pound ? or a quart 
to a bushel or a barrel i Yet is it not obvious 
that these elementary ideas are the very 
ideas he needs as a preliminary to all study 
which, like arithmetic, involves or includes 
the frequent use of these terms ? And what 
are like the slate and the black board, as 


1*29 


means or instruments of acquiring this 
knowledge ? 

In proof of this let a child be shown, by 
a figure — say of a cup — on the black board, 
about how large a vessel must be in order 
to hold a quart ; or, what is better still, show 
him a quart measure. Perhaps he has seen 
one — if he has, the cup itself, or the rough 
drawing on the black board will remind 
him of it. Next make eight such drawings 
on the black board, for eight quart meas- 
ures, and tell him that these, i. e. the con- 
tents of eight such cups, poured together 
would make a peck. Afterwards he may 
be shown, without the least difficulty, that 
four pecks make a bushel. But in order to 
make the jvhole thing clear and definite in 
his mind, curved lines to represent both a 
peck and a bushel basket should be made, 
on the black board, or if not these, at least 
three sides of a square, to give a view of 
wooden measures for a bushel, a peck, See . 

Or, once more, we wish perhaps to show 
him that a dollar is made up of one hundred 
cents, or ten dimes. We first show him a 
cent, and then a dime ; and tell him that 
ten of these copper cents are worth as much, 
or will buy just as much, as a silver piece 
called a dime. Show him, moreover, by 
making on the black board ten circular lines 
about the dimensions of a cent, and tell him 
to count them ; and then, with the under- 
k* 


130 


standing that they represent cents, tell him 
that the ten are worth just as much — and in 
fact make just as much — as one dime, rep- 
resented by the smaller circle. Again show 
him that ten dimes represented by ten 
smaller circles, make up just one dollar 
represented by a larger circle, in the same 
way. 

It is not intended, here, I say once more, 
to prescribe the exact method which every 
teacher shall pursue ; or the precise instru- 
ments by means of which he shall make the 
intended impression on the minds of his 
pupils. If the things themselves could be 
had — as they can be at home, but not al- 
ways at the school room — the measures, 
some grain or beans, a suitable number of 
pieces of money, &c. they would doubtless 
be preferable to any representations, such 
as those to which I have referred, on the 
slate or the black board. But some pre- 
liminary instruction of this sort, I say once 
more, is indispensable ; or there will be no 
true or real knowledge, in the particular line 
which we are now considering. 

I might even go much farther than I have 
yet done, and affirm — and that, too, without 
fear of contradiction by any who are famil- 
iar with the juvenile mind and habits — that 
a pupil may talk very learnedly about 
mental arithmetic, and may be able to solve 
such a question as that before us, with 


131 


great rapidity, and yet know nothing at all 
to any practical purpose about the relative 
proportion of numbers, even of small num- 
bers. Is there one pupil in three who 
dearly and distinctly perceives that if Rox- 
bury is three miles from Boston, and Ded- 
ham six miles from Roxbury, (the space 
between Roxbury and Dedham,) is just 
twice as great as that between Roxbury 
and Boston ? Or, vice versa , that the dis- 
tance between the latter two places is just 
half that between the other two.* 

Some may think that I under- value, or at 
least under-rate, the powers of the young 
mind ; but let those who think so, examine 
for themselves and see. Let it be remem- 
bered, however, that I am speaking here of 
young pupils ; and not of those who are 
fifteen, or sixteen years old. Let those, 
I say, who are skeptical on this point, 
examine for themselves. 

But this relation of distance is soon and 
easily taught with the aid of the black 
board, especially to those who have been 
already introduced to map making. A map 
of two or three towns may be drawn, and 
lines passed through them for roads. Thus 
in the case before us, Boston and Roxbury 
may be drawn, together with the Providence 

* In point of fact Dedham is seven miles from Rox- 
bury ; but this mistake is of little consequence in aritb- 
7»a*5r*al questions and 


132 


turnpike, passing through the latter. The 
road from Boston centre to Roxbury may 
be divided, by means of the chalk, into 
three equal parts, representing three miles ; 
and the road from Roxbury to Dedham ‘into 
six equal parts ; the divisions to correspond 
in extent to the others ; and let each pupil 
see the proportion and the difference.f 
Then let the road be extended — but for this 
purpose, the drawing should be on a scale 
small enough to admit it — to Providence, 
marking off into miles the spaces between 
the several towns. Now, if pupils will be 
honest, I have no doubt nearfy all will at 
once acknowledge that till now they had 
no idea at all of the relative proportion of 
the numbers, three, six, eleven, four, &c. 

Once more. “ Seven times seven make 
forty-nine,” thousands and millions of voices 
have vociferated, in our schools, when they 
had no more idea of the relative proportion 
of the several sevens to each other than if 
they had never uttered an articulate sound. 
All, all is mere memory work ; parrot work. 
I do not say I would have none of it ; for 
that is quite another question. But this I 
do affirm, that such memory work is not 
knowledge ; real, ‘practical knowledge . Till 
a pupil learns, in one way, or another, by 
the intervention of sensible objects of some 


t Thus : 


133 


sort, or their representatives, (as dots or 
squares, or circles, on the black board or 
slate,) the true relation which seven ones, 
and seven sevens have to each other, he is 
no arithmetician. His mental arithmetic, 
as it is called, has no permanent basis, but 
is built on sand. 

How easy it is to establish this relation 
of numbers, by means of seven rows of 
seven dots each ? Or, if we choose, squares 
or circles may be used instead of dots. For 
various reasons, however, I prefer the dots, 
or if not dots, the representations of various 
little objects, as beans, corns, pins, small 
pieces of money, and the like. 

Here is a specimen, on a small scale, of 
what, may be done by the black board, on 
a larger one. 

o o o o o o o 

o o o o' o o o 

o o o o o o o 

o o o o o o o 

o O o o o o o 

o o o o o o o 

o o o o o o o 

What has been said, in this chapter, and 
in the chapter on map making, opens to the 
inquisitive and intelligent teacher, and to 
the pupils also, who are hungering and 
thirsting after knowledge, a wide field for 


134 


slate and black board exercises. How lit- 
tle have we thought of the vast amount of 
preliminary instruction which it is so need- 
ful to give ; and how little of the value of 
those instruments by which it can so read- 
ily be given ! 

But we will take for granted that the pre- 
liminary knowledge to which I allude has 
been given, and that the pupils have been 
taught how to form the nine digits with the 
cypher. They know nothing, as yet of any 
combinations of the digits or figures, nor of 
their properties, individual or collective. 
Preparatory to the study of written arithme- 
tic, here, too, is a considerable work for the 
slate and black board. 

One of the first exercises of this sort is 
to learn to write the figures in perpendicu- 
lar rows. Thus : 

1 8 

2 5 

3 4 

4 2 

5 6 

6 1 

7 3 

8 9 

9 0 

0 7 

It requires both skill and practice to place 
figures in perpendicular rows. It is not so 


135 


difficult to write them in rows horizontally, 
as below. 

1 234567890 
9876543210 

Some think it best to draw lines on the 
slate and black board, both perpendiculars 
and horizontals, letting the lines cross each 
other to form squares ; a figure being then 
written to each square. But I do not think 
this advisable. If a scholar begins to be 
dependent on ruled lines, he will be apt to 
continue dependent. I would, therefore, at 
once place my dependence on the eye, and 
on long practice. 

Here, in this matter, of writing figures, 
pupils will learn chiefly from imitation. 
The copy of the teacher on the black board 
will be worth every thing to them. As fast 
as the teacher puts down a figure, let it be 
imitated ; and when a row is copied or a 
sufficient number of rows for a lesson, let 
the whole be corrected by the teacher or a 
monitor; or, what is perhaps still better, 
by the pupil himself, standing at or before 
the black board. 

-.Perhaps large lessons, (or at least deep 
perpendicular rows,) will be as useful as 
any other in teaching pupils how to write 
figures with method and order ; something 
like the following. 


1756 


2 5 7 8 1 6 1 6 4 

3 4573890 9 
1 73243356 
221 6 07177 

4 01363335 
729461586 
190324848 
987654321 
123446789 
32 1 642987 
152638400 


8 5 4 3 2 

1 6 5 9 0 

8 3 9 1 7 

7 2 3 0 0 

9 6 7 8 7 

0 6 4 0 9 

8 3 4 6 9 

7 6 5 4 3 

2 19 8 0 

5 3 8 6 7 

4 3 6 5 0 


Another * 2 3 4 good exercise is to accustom 
them to follow the lines correctly, where 
the numbers, or sums are not of uniform 
value. The following is a specimen of a 
lesson of this sort. 

9 8 7 6 5 4 371 
6 9 1 8 4 3 0 

3 7 4 3 6 7 6 

40680214 
3 0 6 S 6 

2 9 4 2 

3 4 5 
2 1 
0 9 


Here is an example * in which the sums 
or numbers are still more irregular. 


137 


18695000 
2 6 19 

8 1 3 6 4 3 8 

3 6 3 6 0 

4 4 

7 8 0 9 3 8 

6 79384245 


It is well known to be much more diffi- 
cult to keep perpendicular or vertical rows 
distinct, where the horizontal ones are of 
different lengths ; and yet it is highly desir- 
able to acquire the habit of being able to 
do so. This, as I have already said, is the 
appropriate work of the black board and the 
slates, and should be persevered in, till a 
pretty good share of skill is acquired, in the 
exercise. 

Every teacher who has had any acquaint- 
ance at all with the black board, knows 
how useful it is in teaching numeration, ad- 
dition, subtraction, multiplication, and divis- 
ion ; indeed all the various rules and pro- 
cesses which belong to arithmetic. It is 
hardly necessary that I should dwell, there- 
fore, on these. I will only say, once for all, 
proceed slowly, and do not suffer the anxi- 
ety of the pupils to get forward from one 
rule to another, or from the black board to 
the book, or that of their parents on their 
behalf, urge you on a step faster than the 
good of the pupils obviously demands. I 


138 


know how difficult it is not to hurry oil ; 
and this makes me the more anxious to pre- 
vent it* Make haste, indeed, every where, 
and in all things ; or at least, waste no time. 
And yet there is much of meaning and of 
good sense, too, in the saying or maxim, 
which I have so often quoted ; “ Make 
haste slowly.” 

If tables are to be committed to memory, 
such as the multiplication table, tables of 
weight and measure, tables of time, &c. it 
is well to make this, too, a slate and black 
board exercise. Not, indeed, that I would 
ever write the whole multiplication table on 
the black board, or indeed the whole of any 
other table at once ; but only such parts as 
were suitable for a single lesson. But when 
written, in this way, I would make great 
efforts to have the whole portion, which is put 
down, at one time committed to memory. 
They may transfer it from the black board 
to their slates or not, as may seem best and 
most useful, in the circumstances. 

It may excite a little surprise, perhaps, 
that I should put my thoughts on the use of 
tables, with the methods of teaching them, 
at the close of my chapter on Arithmetic, 
rather than at the beginning. Nevertheless 
I am quite confident that this is the proper 
place for it. Many a scholar is disgusted 
with arithmetic forever, by being compelled, 


139 


at the outset, to commit to memory a iiost 
of unintelligible tables, rules, &c. 

If addition tables, subtraction tables, 
multiplication tables, tables of weight, 
measure, time, currency, &c. &c« are to be 
committed to memory at all, let them be in 
small portions of each at a time, and let 
one table, or portion of a table, be thorough- 
ly learned before proceeding to another. 
Thus, if we commence with the table of 
avoidupois weight, let that occupy the black 
board, (especially if there be a smaller 
black board and a larger one,) till it is 
wholly committed to memory. If the mul- 
tiplication table is the subject, let that be 
followed up till it is mastered. Only a part 
of this long table, however, should stand on 
the slate at one time, say a single division 
of it, as from 4 times 4 are 16 to 4 times 
12 are 48. 

Many teachers insist on having a pupil 
commit to memory the principles, &c. of 
each rule, before he is permitted^to work 
in that rule ; but the utility of this requisi- 
tion is to say the least doubtful. I have 
thought it better — I still think so — so to or- 
der things, as to have the rule appear to be 
derived from the exercise under it, rather 
than the exercises from the rule. In this 
way, as growing out of the exercises, I think 
a rule simply expressed, and written down 
on the black board, and by each pupil on 


140 


his slate, much more likely to be effectually 
impressed on the memory, than if it were 
merely committed to memory, without be- 
ing written. 


* 


CHAPTER XI. 


GEOGRAPHY. 

The pupil having already become familial* 
with making geometrical figures and draw- 
ing simple maps, that is outlines of places 
with which he is familiarly acquainted, and 
having, above all, obtained correct ideas of 
distance, so as to have as it were a basis 
for his ideas to rest upon, is now ready to 
go forward with a more extended study of 
geography. 

In pursuance of this branch, however, I 
would keep in view, as much as possible, 
the general principle already laid down and 
insisted on — that of beginning at home, in 
everything ; or in other words, proceeding, 
always, from the known to the unknown. 
This principle is particularly applicable to 
the study of geography. 

And 3 r et, important a principle as it is, I 
cannot say I would never depart from it. 
On the contrary I am strongly inclined to 
think that we ought to depart from it, at 
times ; that we should teach not only geog- 
raphy but some other branches, both ways, 
by analysis and by synthesis. Not at first, 
1 * 


142 

indeed, but after the pupil has made some 
progress. 

Geography should be begun with map 
making ; taking it up, perhaps, where it 
was left, in the exercises described in the 
chapter on that subject. It will be recol- 
lected that little was then proposed, how- 
ever, except the merest outlines of the school 
room and grounds, the commons and roads 
near that, and perhaps the town in which 
they are situated. Nothing was said of 
making out, on the county and state maps 
proposed, the rivers, mountains, and other 
natural objects which render a map so at- 
tractive as well as valuable ; and the loca- 
tion of which, by the learner, is so useful 
an exercise. 

In studying geography, as geography, 
however, it would be of the highest import- 
ance to insert, in all our maps, the rivers, 
mountains, lakes, seas, &c. The position 
of cities, towns, &c. should also be indica- 
ted in some way. In general it is prefera- 
ble to write the names of places, near the 
little circle or square which is made to point 
out' its exact location. 

In commencing the study of geography 
regularly, the teacher should always begin 
with the black board ; and with the town in 
which his school is located. He should de- 
signate not only its shape, but its principal 
roads, >vith its village or villages ; its rivers 


143 


and brooks, (those at least of any size ;) its 
mountains and hills ; its lakes, seas, and 
bays ; and even its principal churches, fac- 
tories, &c. To this end, it is true, the 
teacher must have books and maps, unless, 
indeed, he is a complete enc} r clopedia of 
topographical knowledge ; but what then ? 
No man can be a professional man, not even 
a mechanic — I mean a skilful and profitable 
one — without the implements of his occu- 
pation or profession. 

Suppose a teacher and his pupils in Hart- 
ford, about to draw an outline of the town. # 
Shall it be drawn according to the size of 
which it appears on our larger maps of the 
state ? Or shall it be somewhat larger ? 
To draw it as large as it is represented, on 
some of the maps of the city and town 
would be, obviously, quite inconvenient, 
because though there might be room enough 
for it on the black board, there would not be 
on the slates. Besides, it should not occupy 
all the space even of one side of a slate. 
There sholild be room enough For a part or 
all of the contiguous towns, in order to show 
its relations and boundaries. Perhaps it is 
best for a teacher to draw it as large as can 
be copied on the smallest slates, with such 


* I have selected Hartford, as a point from which to be- 
gin, both because I am more familiar with the place than 
most others ; and also because its boundaries and those of 
the adjacent towns are particularly easy to describe. 


144 


room for boundaries as would be necessary* 

The map of Hartford might be drawn on 
the black board about three inches long, 
from north to south, and of proportional 
width ; viz, from an inch and a half to two 
inches. Hartford is almost a parallelogram 
or long square ; though its eastern boundary 
is somewhat irregular, being formed by the 
river. 

The Connecticut river is a line so distinct 
and prominent that portions of the towns 
east oC it would hardly be necessary, or if 
necessary at all, only very small portions of 
them. A very narrow strip of East Hart- 
ford and East Windsor would include the 
central villages and churches. But in order 
to make its relation to Farmington and 
Avon on the west as prominent as it ought 
to be, it would be well to have the mere 
outlines, (in fainter strokes,) of both these 
places drawn, and also the southern portion 
of Bloomfield and Windsor. I would in- 
clude about half of Wethersfield, (the more 
important part,) and a corner of Britain so- 
ciety in Berlin. Farther than this, unless 
the slates were all of sufficient length to 
admit it with freedom, 1 would not go ; ex- 
cept it were to the eastward beyond the 
river. 

Much importance should be attached to 
the correctness of each of the town lines. 
Thus beginning with the line between Hart- 


145 


ford and Farmington and Avon — which is 
nearly straight, and runs almost due north 
and south, and might for simplicity’s sake 
be represented exactly so — I would draw 
this just three inches long ; and every pupil 
should be required to do the same. This 
line I would make the nucleus, as it were, of 
the map; on which, or around which, I 
would attach or connect the rest. 

It is important to begin, always, with the 
simplest line, provided it is of sufficient 
length to form a proper starting point. The 
importance too, of having each pupil trained 
to the art of drawing perpendicular, hori- 
zontal and other lines, as well as of judging 
in regard to measures of length — inches and 
feet especially— cannot but be obvious. 

From the bottom of this north and south 
line — the western boundary of Hartford — 
strike off one at right angles, that is hori- 
zontally, to the river, of just two inches. 
That at the north should be made next, but 
is more difficult. A line should be carried 
from the top of the long line or western 
boundary, horizontally, or eastward, nearly 
one inch ; then it should be turned exactly 
south, a very little distance, perhaps about 
the twelfth of an inch, after which it should 
be again carried horizontally, or eastward, 
a little more than two thirds of an inch. 
The eastern line or river alone remains to 
be made ; and will be the most difficult of 
all. 


14 (> 


If* 'however, a teacher has studied his 
subject well before hand, is skilful at draw- 
ing* and has a correct eye as to distance, he 
will not be long in leading his pupils to the 
formation of very good outlines of the town 
of Hartford. Many corrections will no 
doubt be necessary in the progress of the 
exercise, especially in the construction of 
the river line ; but time and patience will 
enable him and his pupils to make them ; 

» — perfect accuracy, of course, not being ex- 
pected. 

The additional lines — intended to repre- 
sent the boundaries,either partially or wholly, 
of the adjoining towns — will be very easily 
added to the former ; especially as they are, 
in general, extensions of them, or mere off- 
sets from them. They should be added as 
soon as the foregoing outline is completed ; 
but need not be made with so much accu- 
racy. One, for example, should be carried 
due north from the northwest comer of 
Hartford— say two thirds of an inch ; from 
which a line carried westward, two inches, 
wall form the north line of Avon, and anoth- 
er parallel to it and about an inch and a 
quarter south of it will form the southern 
line of the same township. The line run- 
ning westward and south westward between 
Farmington and Britain cannot be so well 
described here, but is pretty easily made. 


147 


A correct idea of the points of the corn 
pass, is also, as will be seen, highly indis- 
pensable ; but may be soon and easily ac- 
quired, in connection with such maps. 
There are, I know, a great many of our 
pupils— some, I fear, who can hardly be 
called young ones — who know as little, (as 
Joseph Emerson has well said,) what we 
mean when we tell them that the top of a 
map is north, and the bottom south, as they 
would if we should tell them the top is roro 
and the bottom cluro. But here they see 
that Bloomfield and Windsor are at the top 
of the map, and they know that these places 
are north of Hartford — at least most of our 
pupils do. The river Connecticut, they 
find winding along the eastern side of the 
map, and they know that this is in accord- 
ance with their own daily observation. 
Wethersfield and the State Prison they 
know to be south ; and here, on the bottom 
of the map, they find them. So Farming- 
ton thev know to be west ; and in the west 
they accordingly find it. 

Now, I do not say, that there are not 
other ways — some of them more expeditious 
even— in which to get a correct idea of 
north and south on the map ; but I do say 
that this seems to me to be the true way, 
and almost the only true way. 

But the map is not completed when the 


148 


boundary lines are drawn, and even when 
the pupil becomes familiar with the relative 
position of the adjacent places, and their 
boundaries, according to the points of the 
compass. The small river sometimes called 
Little River, which comes in from the west, 
is to be drawn ; the city is to be located, 
and West Hartford ; and several objects 
are to be marked in the city itself, as the 
College, the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, the 
Retreat for the Insane, the Orphan Asylum, 
the State House, &c. It might be well, 
moreover, to mark the situation of the moun- 
tains, in the borders of Avon and F arming- 
ton, on which are to be seen Wadsworth 
tower. 

It is indeed true that not every town and 
its vicinity, are so favorably situated for the 
purpose we are now considering as Hart- 
ford. And yet some may be more so. There 
are, in truth, very few that have not within 
them, a number of natural or artificial ob- 
jects sufficiently great to arrest and detain 
for a short time the attention of a class of 
pupils. There are few of our towns, which 
have in them no rivers, brooks, ponds, 
mountains, hills, or caves; perhaps none 
which are without church, factory, literary, 
or benevolent institution, court” house, or 
jail. 

We are not, however, to study the geog- 
raphy of our own native town, and the towns 


149 


adjacent, for the sake of a knowledge of 
those towns, in itself considered, so much 
as for the sake of making a beginning, by 
doing that which is equivalent to what is 
called, by mechanics, getting the use of 
tools. The pupil needs to understand the 
use of a map ; how it is made, and how to 
make it. The longer, therefore, he can be 
detained on this first lesson, without losing 
his interest in the exercise, the better ; be- 
cause he will thereby become, as he should 
be, thoroughly acquainted with the terms of 
geography, and of map making as connected 
with geography. 

Every map, at first, should be as mere 
an outline as possible. The fewer the lines 
and marks, the more distinct and perma- 
ment will be the impression on the pupils’ 
minds. I would not* therefore, be in haste to 
fill up even the map of one’s own native 
town. A few only of the more striking 
features should be inserted. Other things 
may be talked about ; and the pupils may 
even be told where they should be placed 
on the map, were they to be put down. 
But farther than this, at first, it will not be 
well to go. 

Another exercise is necessary, in order to 
fit the pupil to go forward with his studies 
with intelligence. He must be taught to 
make a map of his native town, on a re- 
duced scale. Take the case which hasjust 
m 


150 


been considered. Draw the outlines of 
Hartford on a smaller scale than before. 
Let the first line formed— the western 
boundary — be but one inch, instead of 
three ; and let the rest be in proportion. 

This will prepare the way for making a 
map of the whole of Hartford county. For 
on this reduced scale, any slate in school 
would hold all the towns in the county, 
without the least possible difficulty. At 
the same time we should accustom the 
pupil to a dissected map of the same 
county. He can hardly be made too famil- 
iar with the geography of his own town 
and county, or with the shape and position, 
relatively, of the States and Territories of 
our Union. He should also be made famil- 
iar with the general shape of the United 
States and its Territories, taken as a whole, 
and the general position of the same with 
relation to the countries around. For this 
purpose he must be able to put together a 
dissected map of North America ; to which, 
subsequently, we should add South Amer- 
ica. 

How far it is best to proceed in this way 
in this going from the known to the unknown 
— I am not certain. A time will arrive, 
however, when the question of the shape of 
the earth will naturally come in. This may 
be when the teacher is conversing with his 
pupils about Connecticut river. They may 


ask, Where does the water in Connecticut 
river come from ? or, Where does it go ? 
and, If the rivers are constantly running 
into the ocean, whv does not the latter aet 
full ? 

Or the question of the earth’s rotundity 
may not come up till some knowledge is 
acquired of the shape and relative position 
of the continents and oceans, and the teach- 
er begins to converse with them about going 
from place to place ; as from America to 
Asia, to the South Sea Islands, or to China. 
Some ingenious pupil may be struck with 
surprise to find that we can get to China 
both by going eastward and westward, and 
may ask an explanation. If so, this will be 
the proper time to inform the class that the 
earth is round ; and to make, by means of 
the black board, every possible explanation. 
I say every possible one ; because it will 
not be possible to make the subject very 
intelligible without a globe of some sort, if 
it is simply an apple. 

And yet \vhen the knowledge has once 
been imparted and received that the earth 
is round, a great deal may be done by 
means of slates and black boards to make 
the matter more intelligible and practical 
than otherwise it would be. For very few 
pujfils who have long been familiar with 
maps and globes, and who are able to tell 
us, parrot like, that China is on the opposite 


side of the globe from that on which they 
stand, and Cape Horn, a quarter of the way 
round the globe, have any distinct idea of 
the real rotundity of the earth, after all. 

For proof of this, let one of these unfledg- 
ed geographers be asked to tell which way 
a cannon should be pointed in order to shoot 
a ball, if the thing were possible, to China. 
Would he not say, at once, that it ought to 
be pointed eastward ? And when asked to 
point his own finger in the same direction, 
would he not hold it horizontally with re- 
spect to the earth’s surface ? Would he not 
do the same with respect to Cape Horn ? 
And yet, if the earth is round, this could 
not be right. To point the finger or a piece 
of cannon toward China — that is really and 
truly to do so — it must be placed perpendic- 
ularly with respect to the surface of the 
earth, and not horizontally ; and to point to 
Cape Horn, it must be placed at an angle 
of about 45 degrees with the earth’s sur- 
face. 

Now all this, and a thousand other kindred 
facts, tending to show that the earth is prac- 
tically round, as well as theoretically so, 
might be made intelligible on the black 
board ; where a globe was not at hand. 
More than even this ; I am not sure that the 
black board is not better for this purpose 
than a globe possibly can be. 

Let it be required of the pupil to tell, as 


153 


above, in what course China really lies from 
New England. To make the matter plain 
to him, the teacher may draw a circle on 
the black board, representing, that is de- 
signed to represent, a section, or slice, of the 
earth from west to east, or a section of the 
artificial globe, in the same direction. Then 
by showing him, that here, on the upper 
part of the circle, is New England ; and 
there on the lower part is China, and draw- 
ing a line from the former to the latter, we 
may make the thing intelligible to him. 
Here, the teacher says, a cannon ball shot 
off from New England to China, must go in 
the precise course in which I am drawing 
this line. 

Again, let it be required to find out the 
course of Cape Horn from New England. 
To this end we make a circle on the black 
board representing a section or slice of the 
earth through from north to south, and say ; 
Here is New England and there is Cape 
Horn ; and now you see that if I draw a 
straight line, with the piece of chalk, from 
New England to Cape Horn, it passes in 
an oblique direction, or 45 degrees below 
the horizon. 

But to return to our work of map mak- 
ing, and map dissecting. Nothing, as it 
seems to me, is so useful in studying geog- 
raphy, as the simultaneous use ol the slate 
and black board, and dissected maps. I 
m* 


-seriously doubt whether it is of any real ad- 
vantage to put books into the hands of a 
child who is studying geography, till he has 
been drilled at least two or three years with 
slate, black board, and a globe. Maps he 
ineeds to see — good maps — no matter how 
many ; but not books. 

Granted that in order to have the school 
derive the full benefit of this plan of instruc- 
tion in geography, the teacher must be 
master of the science. He must be able to 
.draw, at a moments warning, the outlines 
.of any country in the world ; and not only 
to draw the outlines, but to fill it up. Not 
that a teacher ought himself to do either of 
these very often, at least without any aid 
from the pupils. He should be continually 
referring every thing to their memory, judg- 
ment, &c. 

To recur, once more, to the map of Hart- 
ford, on the smallest or last mentioned scale. 
This being drawn, the teacher says ; I wish 
now to add Wethersfield ; on which side of 
Hartford shall I place it ? If they say, on 
the south side, he asks them which the 
south side is. Here, he says, is Hartford, on 
the black board ; you see its boundaries ; 
shall I place Wethersfield at top or bottom, 
or at one side ? Or, if at one side, on which 
side ? A large map of the whole state, with 
(every township distinctly marked off by 


155 


lines, will of course be, in pursuance of this 
plan, quite a necessary article. 

Having drawn the boundaries of Weth- 
ersfield, all except perhaps the eastern, he 
asks, Is this right ? What is wanting in 
order to have it right ? Which boundary is 
wanting? What forms this boundary ? In 
what direction does the river run ? From 
what town or towns does the river separate 
it ? What other towns do you know of, 
which are bounded on their eastern side, by 
Connecticut river, besides Hartford and 
Wethersfield? What towns do you know 
of that are bounded on their western side 
by the same river ? 

Here is one of the boundaries of Wethers- 
field ; from what place or places does it 
separate it ? From what places does this 
boundary separate it ? Is there any river 
in Wethersfield ? Are there any lakes in 
it ? Any mountains ? Any seas, gulfs, or 
bays ? Let me now hear you mention its 
boundaries, in course. 

No teacher would be well prepared for 
these exercises, in Hartford who was not 
able, with the aid of a large map of Con- 
necticut, to draw the outlines of any town- 
ship in Hartford county, or indeed any one 
adjoining the river, below it. He should be 
so familiar with drawing, moreover, as to 
be able to draw the outlines of these places 
with as much rapidity as he would make 


156 


the figures used in arithmetic, or the capital 
letters used in writing.* 

So of the States of the Union. To be able 
to teach well, a teacher should be so famil- 
iar with the shape of every State, as to be 
able, with a good map of the United States 
before him, to draw the outlines of any given 
state, in a moment, and to draw it, too, 
with accuracy ; I mean as to its size, pro- 
portions, &c. 

Suppose he is to draw the outlines of the 
State of Connecticut. Now he should have 
so clear an idea of the shape of the state, in 
his mind, as not to need any aid at all. Yet 
in order to be accurate, it is well, always, for 
him to have a good map before him, at least 
of the United States, and occasionally to 
cast his eye over it. W e can never be too 
accurate or too perfect in these things, when 
we consider how permanent the impression 
is which they are to make on the minds of 
our pupils. 

With this skill, he can never fail to find 
employment for his pupils — useful employ- 
ment, too. With the map of the State of 
Connecticut before him, he draws the outline 
of one of its counties, and says; This rep- 
resents the shape of one of the counties in 
Connecticut, can you tell me which it is ? 

* The ingenious teacher cannot fail to be able to apply 
what is said here, to his own town, county, &c. and to the 
towns and counties adjaeent. 


157 


What county lies next to it on the west ? 
What on the east ? What on the north ? 
What on the south ? 

So in regard to the map of the United 
States. He draws the boundaries of one of 
the States, and asks what state it is ; what 
others join it ; and in what direction they 
are. He inquires, also, the position of one 
state with respect to another. Thus he 
asks, which way is the state which I have 
drawn from that in which you live ? Sup- 
pose it to be Maryland. He asks which 
way Maryland is from Ohio — from Vermont 
— from South Carolina — from Missouri — 
from Michigan — from Maine — from Louis- 
iana, &c. 

So, in fact, in regard to any other map — 
the map of the world not excepted. He 
draws the outlines of Africa, and asks 
about its boundaries, its bearing from us — 
from Europe — from Asia — from New Hol- 
land — from the South Sea Islands, &c. 
Or he draws an ocean, a sea, or a lake, 
and asks what ocean, sea, or lake it is ; how 
it is bounded ; what of the same class are 
smaller, or larger, &c. 

We hence see that it is not in the mere 
drawing of the outlines of countries that a 
teacher can profitably use a black board. 
He may draw rivers as well as countries. 
Let him draw the Missouri, the St. Law- 
rence, the Oregon, the Oronoke, the Ama- 


158 


zon, the Nile, the Irawaddy, the Seine, or 
the Rhine. Let him draw them, moreover, 
in their natural position, and of a proper 
length and size and relation to one another. 
Thus the Nile and the Oronoke, he should 
represent as having a northern course ; the 
Amazon and St. Lawrence an eastern ; the 
Oregon a western, &c. Let him, then, for 
another exercise, ask what countries lie on, 
that is, near, these respective rivers ? What 
mountains give rise to them ? What cities 
stand on their banks ? 

So interesting — so exceedingly absorbing 
and interesting — are these exercises, in the 
hands of a judicious teacher, who has a 
large black board at his command, that I 
doubt whether a better method could be 
adopted, at least in a great many instances, 
to silence a boisterous school, or to turn 
the current of roguery in a particular corner 
of it, than that of making some river, as the 
Nile, and after describing it, asking ques- 
tions on it, by way of review. 

I have hitherto mentioned but a very few 
things to be attended to in the course of 
these introductory exercises, because I have 
believed, and still believe that the most ac- 
curate and distinct notions, on this subject, 
are always obtained by studying, carefully, 
at first, a few outlines of each country — not 
excepting our own. The boundaries and 
larger divisions, with the rivers, mountains, 


lakes, seas, and perhaps a few more of the 
more striking natural features of a country, 
with a little attention to the cities, is per- 
haps, really all which is useful, at the first. 

But when considerable time has elapsed, 
and these topics become generally familiar, 
there are a variety of other exercises which 
should come in. One of the most striking, 
not to say the most useful, is the following. 

The teacher draws the boundary of a 
country --say France — and having done this, 
puts down his crayon on the northern part 
of it, and asks, “ Were we transported, in 
an instant, to this spot, what should we 
probably see ? Should we see fields and 
roads fenced out as they are here ? What 
sort of houses ? What colored people ? 
How would they be dressed ? How do they 
travel ? What should we see them doing, 
besides cultivating the soil ? What crops 
should we see ? What fruit trees or fruits ? 
What domestic animals ? What wild ani- 
mals ? What forest trees ?” 

Again, just where I place my staff, in the 
country whose outline I have now drawn, 
(which we will suppose is North America,) 
is a great lake ; do you know what it is ? 
With" what other lakes does it connect? 
Into what river do they pour their contents ? 
Into what sea or ocean does the river empty 
itself:' What other large lakes are there in 
the world besides this and its neighbors ? 


160 


Which way from us is this lake ? Which 
way is it from Europe — from Asia — from 
Africa — from South America ? 

But I am afraid I have made suggestions 
in regard to so many exercises that the 
main thing, after all, will be forgotten* 
This is map making — continued, I had al- 
most said, incessant map making. Every 
thing in regard to the study of geography, 
intelligently, depends upon this. But in 
order to this, we must begin right. He who 
can make a map of his own town, and 
county, and an outline of his native state 
with correctness, can make at least the out- 
lines of almost any other part of the world. 

The pupils of our common schools ought 
to be able to make a map of any part of the 
world — state, country, island, sea, ocean, 
or continent — with as much facility and cor- 
rectness a£ a skilful teacher of music will 
write notes, or a rapid mathematician 
make figures. Nor is there the least diffi- 
culty of acquiring such skill, with time and 
patience, and suitable instruction. 

Nor is there, as I believe, any want of 
time for all this. Immense, almost, is the 
time wasted by many, nay most of our pu- 
pils, in the progress of their course of com- 
mon school instruction. Had we but some 
philosopher’s stone to transmute all into gold, 
now great would be the advantage ! The 
discovery of such a power of transmutation, 


161 


rather of' something equivalent to it, I do not 
profess to have made ; nevertheless I do 
profess to have suggested thoughts and 
plans, which, whether of my own invention 
or borrowed, are worth a thousand times 
more than any philosopher’s stone could 
be* 


n 


CHAPTER XII, 


HISTORY. 

The study of History, like that of Geog- 
raphy and many other branches, should 
begin at home, with the known. This, I 
mean, is the way to begin with those who 
are wholly ignorant of the subject, and con- 
sequently more or less destitute of interest 
in regard to it. No matter whether they 
are old or young— eight years old or eighteen 
—they should commence their studies alike, 
both as respects time and place. 

Admitting this, history should most ob- 
viously follow geography. The latter sci- 
ence, pursued in the spirit of the forgoing 
chapter, is exactly the sort of preparation, 
needed for its pursuit. It lays open to the 
pupil the great theatre of human action, as 
it is ; and even introduces him to the pres- 
ent actors. But who have been the other 
actors, in by gone periods And what have 
been their actions — To obtain a satisfac- 
tory reply to these queries is to study his- 
tory. \ 

To begin this, in common schools, we 
should commence as with most other things 


163 


which are taught there, with the black 
board. Let the teacher draw on it the map 
of the nearest place to the school house, 
which includes the scene of some interest- 
ing event of American History. If there is 
any such in his own town, so much the bet- 
ter. Thus a teacher in Hartford, after 
drawing the outlines or boundaries of the 
town might mark the spot where the Char- 
ter Oak stands. Or one in Charlestown, 
near Boston, might mark the spot where 
Bunker Hill stands, or one in Plymouth, the 
place of the Plymouth rock. 

But it will be objected, I suppose, that 
few places are so distinguished as these. 
No, they are not. And yet there are but 
few places, where we cannot find some- 
thing which will naturally lead us back to 
the hfstory of that place. In a place where 
I was teaching school, in one instance — in 
truth not a mile from the school house — was 
a spot called French hill, from the fact that 
the French army of La Fayette once en- 
camped there. This afforded a fine text 
for beginning upon the history of America. 
But if nothing of this kind should exist in 
the town where the school was, let a map 
of the county be drawn. If this, by possi- 
bility should include nothing striking, the 
boundaries ol the state might be drawn, 
which would certainly answer the purpose. 

But suppose the worst. Suppose this 


164 


little manual should find its way to some 
state or territory in which no event has ever 
occurred, so striking as to attract attention, 
and be made the ready key or nucleus of 
other events. Such'a supposition which is 
indeed almost an impossibility, but we will 
venture to make it. Still, however, which 
of us has not had an aged friend or acquaint- 
ance who was engaged more or less either 
in the war of the revolution or in that of 
1812 ? 

In the latter case we might begin by 
drawing a map or the boundaries of a map 
which would include some place or places 
which our friend visited. Thus suppose 
one of my friends or townsmen was in the 
Indian battle of Tippecanoe, where the late 
President Harrison won his laurels, as it is 
so often expressed. Let me then draw a 
map of the river Wabash and its principal 
branches, with perhaps the boundaries of 
the state of Indiana; and begin our oral 
and black board studies of history from that 
point. Or to come nearer home, suppose I 
have had relatives or friends — some of whom 
are still living — who witnessed the execu- 
tion of Major Andre, a British officer of the 
revolutionary war, at Tappan,near Hudson’s 
river, in the state of New York. In that 
case, draw a map of Hudson’s river, and 
an outline of the country above New York, 
between that city and Poughkeepsie, and 


165 


having marked the spots where Andre was 
taken and executed, proceed to tell the pu- 
pils about him ; who he was ; what it was 
for which he was executed ; by whose or- 
ders he was executed ; the names of some 
of the other American officers, &c. This 
would lead, perhaps, to conversation about 
them, especially Washington. And to con- 
verse freely and fully about Washington, 
from his birth to his death, is to go over, in 
a cursory manner, nearly the whole of our 
American history, for the last century. 

There is no sort of difficulty in finding a 
path, if we desire it, which will lead our 
pupils back to the history of one of our wars N 
— that of 1812, or that of 1776. And when 
we once get them interested, in this way, 
the story of one event will lead us to speak 
of another event, or of ' another individual 
wffio was concerned with that event ; that 
to something else ; and thus on, to the his- 
tory of our country from the first ; and then 
to that of other countries. 

In all this, however, we have continual 
need of the black board. Let us suppose 
the case of Andre, as before mentioned, and 
some of the conversation which might arise 
from it. 

Having drawn our map of the river Hud- 
son, and marked the spot where now stand 
New York, Peekskill, Esopus, West Point, 
Newburg, and Poughkeepsie, we next mark 
n* 


166 


a spot for Tappan. Here, we say, using 
our position, Andre was executed. But he 
was not taken here ; he was taken over 
there, the east side of the river ; marking 
that spot also. Then, again, in speaking of 
his object, we should have occasion to say 
something of West Point as it now is ; its 
military school, the object of such a school, 
&c. 

Conversation on this subject, moreover, 
might and w^ould lead to say something of 
Washington. Who was Washington ? — 
When and where was he born ? When 
and where did he die ? At the same time, 
we should find it useful to draw an outline 
of Virginia, and mark the place of Wash- 
ington’s birth, as well as that of Mount Ver- 
non, the place of his residence and death. 

And in proceeding with his history, which 
is never tiresome to the young, how often 
would it be useful to seize the crayon or the 
chalk, and sketch an outline map of one 
place, or river, or another ? And more than 
this even — at least if we are as familiar 
with drawing as I shall show hereafter that 
we ought to be — how frequently, as we pass 
along, will it be both interesting and profit- 
able to sketch some object, natural or arti- 
ficial, the description of which is needed for 
explanation or illustration ? 

Are the pupils, however, to be passive in 
all this ? Certainly not. We cannot make 


1G7 


them so, if we would. One will try to draw 
some place on his slate, which has been 
drawn on the black board in the progress 
of the conversation ; another will, perhaps, 
wish to ask some question about the con- 
struction of a gallows, or a fort ; another 
will write down or revolve, in his mind, 
more or less concerning the events. We 
should always let as many of the sketches, 
maps, &c. which have been drawn at any 
particular lesson remain for some time upon 
the black board as we possibly can ; and 
here is an important reason for having at 
least one very large board in the school 
room for general purposes. 

But this repeating something which has 
been drawn, upon the slate, is not all which 
our pupils may be expected to do. They 
may be required to write down on their 
slates, the historical facts which they may 
have heard repeated ; and this, too, as far 
as they may be able, in the order, as re- 
gards time, in which they took place. 

For example, suppose we had told them 
at one time about La Fa} r ette, and the French 
army, which he was the means of bring- 
ing over to this country, and what battles 
they were chiefly concerned in ; as well as 
how it happened that La Fayette and his 
country were moved to come on and help 
us. Suppose that at another time we had 
told them about the battle at Bunker Hill* 


168 


who were engaged in it, how it orginated, 
in what it terminated, &c. Suppose, once 
more, we had told them the story of Major 
Andre’s execution, and General Arnold’s 
treachery. Now would it not be a useful 
exercise to require them to relate these 
events, on their slates — briefly of course — 
in the order in which they occured ? 

This exercise would be of service in 
many more points of view than one. For 
there might be pupils whose mental organ- 
ization or whose habits were such as might 
lead them to much inaccuracy about the 
order of events, especially when history was 
taught them in the manner here recom- 
mended. In writing down what they had 
heard of the revolution, it might, by possi- 
bility, read thus ; precisely in the order in 
which the lessons had been given out by the 
teacher. 

“The American people grew tired of 
sustaining the \tfar alone ; they wanted men 
and money. The French government ac- 
cordingly sent over General La Fayette, 
with men, and money, and ships to our aid. 
The money and ships and men were all of 
great service to us ; the men fought for us, 
on several occasions, and were subjected, on 
our account, to many trials, hardships and 
losses. 

“ At Boston, the British had almost over- 
run the country, as well as the city ; but 


169 


the Americans, having determined to take 
a stand on Bunker Hill, in Charlestown, 
began to fortify it. The British undertook 
to drive them away, when a great battle 
ensued, in which, though the British were 
defeated, the American general, Dr. War- 
ren was killed. On the spot where he fell, 
a monument is now being erected, called 
Bunker Hill monument. 

“ General Arnold, who commanded the 
American army at West Point, discouraged 
perhaps with the war, and dissatisfied with 
General Washington and the government, 
undertook, in a wicked manner, to give up 
the army and West Point to the British 
troops at New York. To help along the 
project, Major Andre, a British officer came 
out from New York into the neighborhood 
of West Point in disguise, but was taken 
up and condemned as a spy and executed. 
He was taken at Tarrytown, on the Eastern 
side of Hudson’s river and hung at Tappan, 
on the Western side, about 30 miles above 
New York City.” 

Now such an arrangement of facts, er- 
roneous as it is, would be perfectly natural, 
at least to the thoughtless and giddy. For 
we must never forget that the young are 
never destitute of curiosity, and therefore 
love to hear stories and grow in knowledge. 
They are volatile, and sometimes impatient. 
They are not always willing to take pains 


170 


about the order of events, or their remoter 
effects or causes. A great deal of patience 
is often needed, to enable us to begin with 
them, and as circumstances may require it, 
to set them right. 

In the above instance the correction is 
not difficult. It is easy to show that the 
war of the ! revolution began in and about 
Boston, and that the contest at Bunker Hill, 
was an event of early date. That Arnold’s 
treachery, was next to this, in the order of 
time, and the arrival of La Fayette, in this 
country last of the three. In general, un- 
less a pupil is peculiarly sensitive, these 
corrections, with the explanations which 
would naturally accompany them, may be 
made before the whole school, and will be 
found as interesting to many others, as to 
the individual for whose special benefit they 
were intended. 

This branch may be pursued farther or 
not so far, as may seem to the teacher most 
expedient, in his particular circumstances. 
There is, however, one method of pursuing 
it, upon which I wish to dwell somewhat 
longer. 

To those who have gone a little way in 
this branch, either on the black board or 
elsewhere, and who are familiar with 
Geography, exercises like the following, 
may be highly useful. True they are most 
valuable as a review, after we have studied 


books 1 — but we have abundant proof 4 that 
these slate and black board exercises do not 
exclude books, but lead to their profitable 
study. 

The teacher will draw an outline map of 
France, and after inserting the river Seine, 
and perhaps a very few other natural fea- 
tures of this great empire, will put down 
his crayon on Paris, and say ; Do you know 
what city of France stands here on the 
river Seine ? If they say, Paris $ he asks ; 
What does history say of Paris ? What 
great events have occurred here, and at what 
periods ? &c. The questions may be writ- 
ten, if the teacher prefers it, on the black 
board, and be suffered to remain there in full 
view of the school, who as fast as they are 
able prepare their replies to the several 
questions. In other cases, immediate ver- 
bal replies only may be required* 


CHAPTER XIIl. 


BIOGRAPHY. 

The importance of Biography, as a branch 
bf English education , seems to me undenia- 
ble. The only debate or question connec- 
ted with it, is how amid a multiplicity of 
other things, confessedly indispensable, we 
can by possibility find time for it. For if 
taught &t all, it should be taught in the com-*' 
mon school. 

Biography, however, is a branch which 5 
can be pursued, to a greater or less extent, 
according to circumstances. It is not with 
it, as with History or Grammar, especially 
the latter, that unless studied through , as a 
system* we derive from it but little benefit. 
Its successive portions, are, in a great mea- 
sure complete, by themselves. Thus, we 
may study the file of Paul or Howard of 
Washington, and then stop fofever ; and 
yet we do not necessarily lose what we' 
have learned. We are still acquainted, more 
or less, with the distinguished individual 
whose life we have studied, and though an 
acquaintance for example with La Fayette, 


Franklin, Lee, Greene, Knox, Adams, Hari* 
cock, and many other of his cotemporaries 
would make us much more intimately ac- 
quainted with Washington himself, than we 
should otherwise be, we still feel, I say again, 
that we have accomplished something. And 
we feel right. Hence if we cannot do every 
thing in common schools in the way of 
studying biography which we wish, every 
teacher may make a beginning, as well as 
not. There are always moments for this 
purpose, will we but use them. But this I 
shall show more clearly in the chapter on 
morality. 

In teaching biography, on the black board, 
I would always begin with valuable charac- 
ters ; such for example as Paul and How- 
ard. I have mentioned the names of war- 
riors in connection with history ; not because 
warriors are often good men, but because it 
is much easier to teach history in connec- 
tion with their names than with those of 
any other class of citizens. 

Let us take the biography of Howard. 
The teacher sketches the boundaries of the 
great empire of European Russia. ‘ Here,’ 
he says, “ in the northern part, is St. 
Petersburg ; quite a large city ; here in the 
southern part is the city of Cherson. Do 
any of you know what distinguished man 
died here ? It was John Howard. What 
do } r ou know of John Howard? Was he 


174 


an American, a Frenchman, a Russian 
or Englishman ? What was he at Cherson 
for ? Where was he going, when he went 
from Moscow to Cherson and died there f” 

I do not mean to intimate that many pupils 
in a common school, would be likely to an- 
swer such questions as these ; for it could 
not be expected. Some few however who 
had read thO life of Howard, might be able 
to do so. At any rate I have indicated the 
course which conversation on the subject 
might naturally take ; and which indeed it 
ought to take. 

It might be too much to go through with 
his life, at a single lesson, but we may 
make a beginning. We may speak of 
some of the places which he visited on er- 
rands of mercy, and sketch them in passing, 
on the black board. At the next lesson, the 
pupils may be questioned by way of re- 
view, on the former lesson, and also made 
somewhat more familiarly acquainted with 
his character. 

Great care I admit, is indispensable, on 
the part of teachers who would teach 
biography history or geography in this way, 
by topics. For not to put together our 
topics, afterward, is sometimes to confuse if 
not confound our pupils. Still, with pains 
and ingenuity, there is, I think, no insur- 
mountable difficulty. 

Wc may begin at the close of a man’s 


175 


life, as in this case of Howard, and then go 
back to his birth, and go through with it 
regularly ; or we may begin with some in- 
teresting fact respecting him, and go back- 
ward and forward both. The only real 
difficulty is in making the pupil understand 
where we are and what we are about , at all 
times. So in teaching history; we may 
begin the history of the United States with 
Washington and the revolution, and run 
backward and forward, till we have com- 
pleted it. 

One more example of biograph}' ; that of 
Paul. I have spoken of his shipwreck, 
under another head, and for Another pur- 
pose. Nevertheless, taking advantage of 
that as introduction, or of some other fact 
with which it is supposed a part of the 
pupils may be already familiar, I would 
commence his life at the same place, and 
go backward and forward, according to 
convenience till I had completed it. 

The teacher might make a hasty map of 
the Mediterranean sea, and having made it 
distinctly understood by the class what sea 
it was, proceed as follows. 

“ Here,” putting down his crayon, near 
the island of Malta, “ about 1S00 years ago, 
a vessel being wrecked on the rocky coast 
of this island, the crew and passengers con- 
sisting in the whole of about 270 persons — 
one of them an old man of fourscore, and 


176 


.others of them probably grey headed — all got 
ashore in safety ; even though the sea run 
high and the vessel came to pieces sud- 
denly, and they had no boat. Was not such 
an escape remarkable ? 

“ Now among this 270 persons was one 
man, whom most of you already know 
something about, and who was one of the 
most distinguished men, in may respects, 
that the world ever saw. Do any of you 
know his name ? And where he was going, 
in the vessel, when he was shipwrecked ? 
And on what island he was cast.' Do you 
know what befel him on the island ? Do 
you know what become of him afterwards ?” 

These questions show what course the 
conversation would naturally take. The 
teacher would speak of Paul’s going to 
Rome — why he went there ; what befel him 
there, &c. Then he would go back to the 
cause of his being sent there, which would 
of course lead to a great many more parti- 
culars of his history. Something more 
might now be said of the voyage, the places 
they passed, &c. &c. This would lead, 
very naturally, to a word about Tarsus, the 
place of Paul’s nativity ; and this again to 
his early life, conversion, first preaching, 
&c. In this way, by beginning in the mid- 
dle of his history and going both forward 
and backward, the course would be made 
interesting and intelligible, without being 


177 


formal ; and in the end, by reviewing, or 
questioning the pupils, might be made clear, 
correct, and orderly. 

Not unlike this is the Bible method of 
teaching biography, and I have often thought 
this might be one reason why the biography 
of the Bible is so deeply engaging and so 
permanently interesting. Take the case of 
this very same Paul. The first we know of 
him, he is a grown man, and already a firy 
persecutor of the young Christian church. 
After his conversion, his history continues a 
while, till ere long, we are carried back, inci- 
dentally, particularly in his public speeches, 
to an account of his birth and education. — 
Again we follow him in his travels both in 
Europe and Asia, over sea and over land, 
till we find him sent to Rome, where for 
aught we know to the c^itrary, after having 
long braved the dangers of sea and land, 
and many thus narrowly escaped death, he 
became a martyr to the cause he had advo- 
cated. 

Whatever, therefore, may be the merits 
or demerits of this method of teaching 
biography, of one thing we are sure, at any 
rate ; that it is striking and interesting ; and 
that by means of slates and black boards, 
many of the facts are not only made more 
tangible, as it were, but for this very reason, 
better and longer removed than in any other 
way. 


o’ 


CHAPTER XIV. 


GRAMMAR. 

Admiting English Grammar to be the art of 
speaking and writing the English language 
correctly, it might seem at first view, that if 
a child, by proper attention to spelling, 
defining, reading, writing and composing, 
could be brought to speak and write cor- 
rectly, it would supersede the necessity of 
studying Grammar as a separate branch, 
and save many months, if not years of val- 
uable time. 

Now I have no* the least doubt that a 
course of instruction, like the foregoing, 
especially in spelling, defining, reading and 
composing, followed up by such book in- 
struction as the slate can only make prepa- 
ration for, would render many pupils better 
grammarians than our youth are usually 
found to be. And yet I think that the 
direct study of Grammar subsequently to the 
course of instruction to which I have refer- 
red, but not before it, may have its uses. I 
think that if those who attend to it should 
not read and speak any better on account of 
it, they would, at least, read and speak 


179 


more intelligibly, both to themselves and 
others. 

It is on this belief, and not solely with 
reference to the public prejudice in favor of 
Grammar, that lam disposed to give special 
attention to it, as a distinct branch. I know 
it is generally esteemed by our pupils as an 
exceedingly <h~y and irksome study ; but it 
need not be so. It may be made as inter- 
esting to the young of every age, as almost 
any thing else. The only thing re- 
quired is to render it as intelligible, and 
I might say as tangible as other studies. 

Now I claim that the slate and black 
boards give to the study of Grammar, as 
they do to several other common school 
studies, a good degree of what I have here 
called tangibility. They certainly have 
done in my own hands ; and I doubt not 
they may in the hands of others. 

What, then, is the course of instruction 
in English Grammar, which should be pur- 
sued in connection with the slate and black 
board ? 

We should begin by requiring our pupils 
to write down on their slates, the names of 
substantial things , or in other words nouns ; 
but without telling them at first, for what pur- 
pose. One of the exercises under the head 
of “Spelling,” in which words are arranged 
in classes or natural families, is a kind of 


180 


preparation for this part of Grammar to 
which we are now directing our attention. 

The pupils should be made to understand, 
— not merely told it, — that the words which 
they are writing down must all be such 
words as will either mean something when 
standing by themselves, or with a, an or the 
placed before them. And in order to teach 
them how to act. according to this rule, we 
must frequently bring words to this test on 
the black board. Thus suppose a pupil 
writes down the word soar under the erro- 
neous belief that it means something. The 
teacher may then write it on the blackboard, 
and then say, “now is there any such thing 
as a sour? We may indeed say a sour 
apple or sour vinegar, and sour looks, but 
is there any such thing as a sour , without 
putting some other word with it ? Think 
now, whether it has any sense without some- 
thing put before oi after it.” 

In this way, that is in bringing words to 
the test, on the black board, may a teacher 
soon show his pupils what he means. — 
There will be very little difficulty with 
what are called proper nouns, or with the 
far greater proportion of all others. Still 
there is a class which it will be more diffi- 
cult to get along with ; chiefly, however, 
because their meaning is not understood. 
I refer to such words as ingeniousness, cor- 
respondence, susceptibility, &c., expressive 


181 


of qualities, and yet retaining the character 
of substantive words. But it is hardly 
reasonable to expect the pupil to understand 
this matter thoroughly at first. 

We need not be in haste about telling 
him that he is now engaged in the study of 
Etymology, a part of English Grammar,. 
It is in fact, of no consequence whether he 
knows, for some time to come that he is 
studying Grammar. Nor need he ever 
know, till he has been quite familiar with 
their nature, the names, noun and substan- 
tive, as applied to this class of words. The 
character of the thing should first become 
familiar to him, and afterwards we may 
give him its name. 

Next to the noun, we should study the 
adjective ; but not under the name of adjec- 
tive ; this for a time should be withheld. 
We should write some common noun on 
the black board, very conspicuously, and 
require our pupils to write, on their slates 
a list of such words, as when placed before 
it would make sense with it. For example,, 
the word horse might be placed before them 
thus ; 

horse • 

“ The question now is,” the teacher will 
say, “ what words are you acquainted with 
which, when placed before horse, will make 
sense with it. Perhaps you will write walk; 


182 


but can we say a walk horse 9 Or you may 
possibly write down John or Thomas ; but 
can we say a John horse, or a Thomas 
horse? We may indeed say John’s horse,, 
but not John horse. But if you write the 
words red or white or black, these will make 
sense with horse ; for we can say a 
white horse, or a black horse, or a red 
horse. There is a very great number of 
words of this class, and if no one pupil 
should be able to think of but a few, yet 
among them all they would, at least with 
a very little prompting, be able to make out. 
a much larger number. F or the benefit of 
those teachers who have thought but little 
on this subject, I will here insert a list of 
such adjectives as will make sense — and 
good sense, too, — with the substantive word 
horse . 


red 

kind 

homely 

slow 

white 

gentle 

agreeable 

ungovernable 

grey 

ugly 

disagreeable 

unmanageable 

black 

cross 

old 

unruly 

pied 

obedifent 

young 

wild 

good 

healthy 

small 


bad 

sickly 

large 

headstrong 

vicious 

handsome 

swift 



It may not be amiss to remind the teacher 
of what perhaps may have already forced 
itself upon his mind, that in almost every 
one of these exercises in grammar, the pupil 
is making improvement in spelling, defining, 


183 


composing and thinking. So that were the 
study of words, and the cultivation of 
thought, the improvement of judgment 
and the consequent growth and expan- 
sion of the mental powers, as a whole, 
the main, if not sole, object of this form of 
study, it would be worth our attention and 
would be beyond the possibility of debate, 
exceedingly valuable. 

But to return to the adjective. Anything 
beyond the mere definition of the adjective, 
in its simplest form, should not, at first, be 
attempted, lest we confound and perplex, 
rather than enlighten, and improve. Every 
thing in regard to the comparison of this 
part of speech, and all doubtful words— 
words I mean which he on the confines be- 
tween the adjective and the noun on the 
one hand, and the adjective and the adverb 
on the other should, as far as possible, be 
studiously avoided. 

It will be time enough, in this case, as in 
the former, to give out the name adjective, 
after we have taught the thing. Let this 
remark suffice also for the other parts of 
speech as well as the noun and adjective. 

Before proceeding to the study of another 
part of speech, however, it will be well to 
exercise the pupil in combining the adjective 
and noun, as well as in framing them both 
into sentences. For this purpose blank 


sentences, not unlike the following, may be 


prepared on the 

black board. 

A 

man. 

The 

house. 

A 

tree. 

An 

Snow is 
Grass is 
Life is 

The sun is 

book. 

horses. 

The 

line. 


These blanks the pupils should be re- 
quired to fill out. The exercise, of course, 
will hot be wholly new j but so much the 
better. It will impress more deeply on the 
mind the nature and power of an adjective ; 
and should the teacher choose to give them 
the name adjective , it will be long remem- 
bered. 

The next step may be to teach someting 
about the verb ; beginning, of course, with 
the verb active or transitive. The superior- 
ity of the method of teaching by means of 
the black board, especially when we are 
aided by sensible objects, is no where more 
obvious than at this point. Many of our 
pupils spend weeks and months in commit- 
ting to memory and reciting “ a verb is a 
word which signifies to be, to do, and to 
suffer,” &c. &c. without knowing any more 
about the true nature of a verb than they 


1 85 


did before they began ; whereas with the 
aid of a black board and a little ingenuity 
■on the part of the teacher, a tolerably cor- 
rect idea of a verb may be obtained in a 
very short time. 

But how are we to proceed in the ques- 
tion. With a bough from some tree or shrub 
in his hand, the teacher takes his station at 
the black board, and with a faithful pupil 
at his side, one whom he has already par- 
tially instructed, he commencs performing 
a series of actions which the pupil or monitor 
writes down on the black board ; the rest, 
in the meantime, looking on and writing the 
actions on their slates, or copying them from 
the black board. 

The teacher may bend, swing, cut, break, 
saw, hack, scrape, wring, snap, strike, bite, 
top, split, peel and throw the stick. The 
assistant pupil will accordingly write down 
the words I have mentioned as fast as the 
teacher performs the actions. 

This assistant pupil will hardly be needed 
any longer than while the school generally 
is finding out the teacher’s meaning. For 
many will not, at first, understand him, who 
after a little aid in the way adverted to, will 
be among his very best students, in this 
hitherto dry and much dreaded department. 

But other actions may be performed, as 
well as those above-mentioned. The teacher 
will, perhaps, whisper, halloo, sing', read, 
P 


186 


write, walk, run, leap, jump, hop, stamp, 
crouch, sit, rise, recline, frown, smile, &c. 
Not that all these are transitive verbs ; for 
many of them are not; but they are all 
verbs which imply action, and will serve to 
give the idea of what a verb is. 

Being told that these words were verbs, 
after they have found out their nature — 
pupils are now prepared to go upon the ad- 
verb. The teacher after writing down a 
verb, on the black board, asks the pupils 
for such adverbs as may be joined to it. 

He writes, for example, the word run, and 
asks his pupils to tell how a person may 
run. Few of them may understand him at 
first, but with a little familiar explanation 
they will soon comprehend his meaning, and 
will begin to hold up their hands, to signify 
that they wish to mention words. 

One will propose the word slowly ; an- 
other, swiftly; another, lazily ; another, 
awkwardly, ox gracefully ; and another, vio- 
lently. There will be a little difficult}^ here, 
I know, about the ly ; some omitting, and 
others using it. But this can easily be set 
right ; in fact, this exercise is the very best 
in the world for eradicating this almost uni- 
versal error of confounding the adverb with 
the adjective. 

But the stick or bough, so useful in 
teaching the definition of the verb will be 
of great use in giving the pupil a correct 


187 


idea of the nature of an adverb. Holding 
it up in view of the class, the teacher may 
say ; How many ways are there of throw- 
ing this bough ? 

For example, it may be thrown 



forward 

backward 

sideways 

swiftly 

slowly 



violently 
hastily 
leisurely, &c. 


Not that one pupil in ten, even of the 
older and more ingenious, could be led to 
suggest all these modes of throwing the stick, 
or qualities of action ; but among them all, 
nearly all these, and perhaps some not in- 
cluded in this list, might be thought of. 
The principal object, at first, would be, to 
impress deeply on their minds the idea that 
an adverb is added to verbs, in some way to 
qualify them ; and this by a few exercises 
like the foregoing could not fail to be the 
result 

There are, it is true, some classes of ad- 
verbs that can best be learned by commit- 


188 


ting them to memory ; but even in this, it 
would greatly help the pupil to retain them,, 
by copying them from the black board and 
neatly writing them on his slate. Such, for 
example, are secondly, thirdly, fourthly,, 
fifthly, and so on. 

A correct idea of the nature of a pronoun 
may be given by writing down, on the black 
board, some anecdote ; omitting at first the 
pronouns and requiring the pupils to supply 
them. Thus if an anecdote of the elephant 
were to be written down, we might write it 
as follows. 

“ A painter, being desirous of drawing 
an elephant in the uncommon attitude, of 
having trunk raised high in the air, 

and mouth open, employed boy 

to amuse the animal and keep in the 

desired attitude by throwing fruit into 
mouth. But as the lad frequently deceived 
and made an offer only of throwing 
the fruit ’ grew angry ; and as 
iff had known that the painter’s intention 
of drawing was the cause of the affront 
that had been offered instead of re- 
venging himself on the lad, returned 

resentment on the master, and taking 
up a quantity of water in trunk, threw 
on the paper on which the painter was; 
drawing and spoiled .” 

This being written out very plainly on the- 
black board and copied by the pupils, could* 


189 


by most, be easily corrected. After the 
repetition of a few lessons of this kind, an- 
other step would be necessary. They should 
not only be required to supply the appro- 
priate words, but also to tell what they 
stand for. In this view they should be 
directed to set down, for once, not the pro- 
nouns, but the words which they would use 
if there were none such as he , his , him , it, 
&c. to be had. 

Thus, in the foregoing example, the class 
might be asked, in order to set them going 
right, “ What was it which was to be raised 
high in the air and kept there ?” The ele- 
phant’s trunk, they would probably reply. 
“ Then write down the word trunk,” would 
be the proper direction. “ Keep whose 
mouth open ?” the teacher asks. The ele- 
phant’s. “ Then write the word elephant’s.” 

When the blanks are thus filled out, let 
the teacher read the anecdote, as thus pre,] 
pared, it will afford the pupils much 
amusement, and at the same time give 
them a better idea of the true nature of a 
pronoun — which is, indeed, its chief ob- 
ject — than could be , obtained by the mere 
recital of the sentence “ A Pronoun is a 
word used instead of a noun,” &c. for a 
whole year. 

As for a description of the Prepositions, 
Conjunctions and Interjections, I think this 
is best given when we come to use them in 

P* 


composition, and especially when we come? 
to analyze our sentences, or, as it is called, 
parse them. It may be well to write off a 
list of each on the black board, and let the 
pupils copy them, and give them their 
names ; not that they will fully understand 
them, but to prepare them, in part, for fur- 
ther exercises. Or if the teacher chooses 
entirely to omit them, for the present, there 
can be no possible objection to it. 

It will now be time to go back, and give 
the pupils a little knowledge of the various 
forms, declinations, &c. of the various parts 
of speech. And first of the number of 
nouns. 

This is managed, very easily, on the black 
board. The teacher has only to write down 
a list of common nouns, both in the singlar 
and plural form, and ask them what makes 
the differences in the two columns of words. 
Thus : 


house 

houses 

book 

books 

tree 

trees 

hand 

hands 

sun 

suns 

star 

stars 

lamp 

lamps . 

eye 

eyes 

ear 

ears 

head 

heads 


** Think now,” he says, “ in what the 


191 


word houses, differs from the word house.” 
It will not be at all difficult for them to per- 
ceive that the only difference consists in the 
addition of an s. When it is clearly per- 
ceived that this is the only difference 
throughout, it will be proper to tell them 
that the words without the s, meaning but 
one, they are in the singular number ; and 
the others meaning more things than one, 
in the plural number. 

But it will be well to go a little farther 
and show them by familiar examples that 
though this is the general method of forming 
plural from singular nouns, yet that there 
are several other methods, some of which 
apply to a very large number of words. 

Examples of what we mean by the gen- 
der of nouns, may also be presented on the 
black board ; together with illustrations of 
case and person. Case is the most difficult 
of all ; and }^et even this may be made more 
intelligible by means of the black board than 
in any other manner. 

What we mean by the comparison of 
adjectives is better shown in this way than 
in any other. If the eye assists the ear — • 
as I have all along taken for granted — the 
more largely we address the eye the 
better. 

And when we come to the number gen- 
der, case, &c. of pronouns, we again derive 
much aid from a full exhibition of the differ- 


192 


ent forms and terminations of this part of 
speech, to the whole class. A good deal of 
explanation is, indeed, still necessary ; but 
the explanations themselves are vastly more 
important when the eye is addressed at the 
same time. 

Nothing, perhaps, which belongs to the 
etymological part of grammar, as grammar 
is now usually taught in our schools, is more 
dry and uninteresting than the conjugation 
of the verb, and the declension of nouns 
and pronouns; especially the former. And 
yet there are few things which can be more 
readily made intelligible, not to say inter- 
esting, by means of slates and black board s 
than the conjugation of a verb through its 
various moods and tenses. 

Nor is the black board wholly useless 
when we come to Syntactical grammar, or 
parsing. For besides the convenience of 
having the rule or rules, most important to 
be kept in mind at any given time, con- 
stantly before the pupils, in large letters, 
there are a thousand little devices which 
may be resorted to, with the chalk and 
pencil, for making a thing intelligible, which 
cannot be practiced in other circumstances. 
Let me present a few specimens of what I 
am now speaking of. 

Suppose it is desired to show how “ ac- 
tive verbs govern the objective case.” We 
accordingly write, on the black board, 


193 


“Washington defended his country.” — 
Here, in order to make a strong impression 
on the youthful mind, we may draw a 
curved line from the governing word to the 
word which is governed ; or at least require 
a pupil to do it, in view of the rest. Take, 
for example, the sentence already men- 
tioned. 


Washington defended his country. 

Or, to make the impression still stronger, 
we may place the governed word below the 
line of the rest, implying as it were, a sort 
of submission. Thus, 

t % 

Washington defended his J 
country. 

Again, in endeavoring to make plain the 
rule, “ The nominatrve case governs the 
verb,” we may resort to the same general 
plan. I use again the same sentence as 
before. 

f ■\ 

Washington J 

defended his country. 

Again, there is a rule in most of our gram- 
mars which says, “ Conjunctions connect 
the same moods and tenses of verbs and 
cases of nouns and pronouns.” Now in 
order to make this rule intelligible, we may 
well pursue a course not unlike the former. 


194 


In the following sentences the words which 
the conjunctions control are connected to- 
gether by a curved line. 

( m ■ \ 

“My Father taught my brother and me 
to read.” 

< — — — * — > 

“ He and she were school mates.” 

t i 

“ The poor are often despised and op- 
pressed.” 

r 

“ To be good and to do good, should be 
our main object in life.” 

All this, it may be said, amounts to very 
little ; and I freely acknowledge it. Or, at 
least, I am free to acknowledge that there 
is nothing very wonderful about it. But so 
much the better. If there is nothing won- 
derful or wonderfully - difficult about it, and 
yet if it is really calculated, as I maintain 
it is, to render a subject which is usually 
regarded dry and unintelligible, at once 
plain and interesting, then trifling as they 
may seem in the detail the suggestions 
which have been made and the plans which 
have been proposed certainly have their 
value, and deserve a measure of the atten- 
tion of every teacher. 


CHAPTER XV. 


VOCAL MUSIC, OR SINGING. 

Concerning music in schools, and espe- 
cially the most approved methods of teach- 
ing it with the aid of the black board, I 
have very little to say ; chieffy, for the want 
of experience. I only know that most of 
our distinguished teachers, who have called 
in this instrument to their aid, place a high 
value upon it, and are continually found 
using it. How can it be otherwise than 
useful, then, in common schools, in which 
the public opinion is fast deciding that sing- 
ing shall be taught ? 

There are two considerations which weigh 
much, with me, in the decision of this ques- 
tion. First ; it seems to me obvious that 
in order to have the young understand mu- 
sic, thoroughly and practically, they must 
be able to read it, if not to write it. — 
Secondly, that a single black board would 
answer the purposes of both teacher and 
pupils, nearly as well — especially in con- 
junction with slates — as books on the sub- 
ject, with paper, pen and ink ; besides be- 
ing vastly less expensive. 

Much as I value music, in our schools, on 


196 


account of its physical, social, and moral 
tendencies, I do not believe any instrumen- 
talities are necessary but those to which I 
have alluded. I take for granted, however, 
that the teacher is duly qualified for his 
task ; for otherwise very little can be done 
— whether the instrumentalities be of one 
kind or another. Whether it is, or is not, 
true that he “ who has no music in his soul, 
is fit for treason,” one thing I am sure of, 
that he who has no music in his soul is not 
fit to teach music, even in the district school 
room. 

I have spoken as if I was wholly without 
experience in this matter. But I am not 
without experience in regard to the moral 
influence of music, in the common school 
room. I have witnessed, with emotions of 
the most exalted pleasure, its happy ten- 
dency. More than once have I seen a dis- 
orderly or at least noisy school brought to 
order and quiet, in a few moments, by 
means of singing. But as I have already 
said, if singing in our schools is of so much 
importance, this must certainly enhance the 
value of slates and the black board, since 
the voice of public opinion in regard to their 
use in teaching this art, wherever they have 
been tried, is without exception, decidedly 
in their favor. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


OF DRAWING. 

The formation of geometrical lines of 
the figures used in writing, and of many 
of the letters of the alphabet, while it 
is a part of the instruction which belongs 
to those branches, respectively, is also an 
important preparation, as I have already 
said, for that more particular and extended 
and thorough cultivation of the art of draw- 
ing, which if it cannot be said to be indis- 
pensable to all, is at least highly useful. 

Were this the place for it, I might go on 
to show the great importance, to people 
of all classes, of knowing how to sketch 
such objects as interest us, whether of na- 
ture or art. The task would be as easy as 
it would be interesting. But I must take 
lor granted that the reader is already con- 
vinced of its importance, and of the necessity, 
even, of making it a part of common school 
instruction. The question then is, how shall 
it be taught ; or rather what assistance can 
we derive from slates and black boards. 

In the excellent school of Mr. Emerson, 
late of Wethersfield, in Connecticut, draw- 

q 


198 


ing was attended to with no little solicitude ; 
but I am not sure that it was made an ob- 
ject of special attention at a very early 
period of the course of instruction. On the 
contrary, judging from Mr. E’s. remarks 
and suggestions concerning it, I suppose 
that at least he would introduce it gradual- 
ly, as I have done, among beginners in a 
common school. The following is his lan- 
guage concerning it. 

“ This is not designed (that is, in his 
course of teaching,) as an elegant accom- 
plishment, but as a useful art, or rather ex- 
ercise, for important purposes. But very 
little time or skill is requisite to delineate a 
picture, in the manner proposed. By means of 
oil, common writing paper may be rendered 
almost transparent. This may be laid upon 
the picture, which with pen or pencil, may, 
in a few minutes be very easily traced upon 
it. The principal object is to take off like- 
nesses of persons who have made the most 
distinguished figure in history. Drawing 
these likenesses will tend to produce or in- 
crease an interest in attending to their char- 
acters. With their looks their names will 
be associated, which will render it more 
easy to retain and recal them. With their 
looks and names, thus associated, the learner 
associates their actions. This imparts to 
their whole history, a clearness, distinct- 
ness, animation, and familiarity, that other- 


199 


wise, it can scarcely receive. The like- 
nesses may indeed be imperfect ; but this 
will not materially alter the happy result. 
The same method may be adopted in draw- 
ing maps and other objects.” 

Now while Mr. E. justly attaches very 
great importance to the art of taking off 
likenesses, he does not seem to me to value, 
so highly as he ought, the art of delineating 
other objects ; since he says expressly that 
with him, in his school, the former is the 
'principal object. In our common schools, 
if not in all other schools, the latter is a 
much more important object than the for- 
mer ; since in practical life we have occa- 
sion to sketch other objects either of art or 
nature much oftener than persons, whether 
distinguished or otherwise. 

This is said, however, to increase the 
sum total, as it were, of the value which 
we attach to the art, as a whole, and not to 
lessen it. For if the art of taking off like- 
nesses is only a small part of the science 
and art of drawing ; and if the whole sub- 
ject belongs to common schools, where nine- 
teen twentieths of the inhabitants of our 
country receive all the instruction they ever 
do receive out of the family and church, 
how exceedingly important, as an art, must 
drawing be ! 

But to the manner, rather than the matter 
of my subject. Now I have many doubts 


200 


in regard to the use of oiled paper, as an 
instrument of drawing in our common 
schools, valuable as it may be in select or 
private schools, and above all in our fami- 
lies. But even if we use it, I would use 
the slate and the black board at the same 
time. The latter would be an aid, greatly 
so, to the former. 

In commencing the use of slates and pen- 
cils among very young pupils, the practice 
of representing living objects, as dogs, 
horses, birds, and men, was alluded to. 
Now children are very fond of this exer- 
cise. In commencing, in good earnest, the 
subject of drawing, I would therefore, re- 
cur to it, somewhat in conformity with the 
views of Mr. Emerson ; never, however, 
except under the eye or direction of the 
teacher, without a copy on the black board. 
But I would not pursue this plan very long. 
F rom the representations of men and other 
animals, I would soon pass to that of 
things. 

No one, so far as I know, has done more 
to introduce plain, simple, familiar draw- 
ing, into our common schools and render it 
available in the common business and em- 
ployments of life than Mr. Josiah Holbrook. 
About three years since he prepared a se- 
ries of drawing cards, thirty six in number ; 
a set of which, to every teacher who wishes 
to call in the slate and black board to his aid, 


201 


but who feels the want of experience to guide 
him, in his couse, would be invaluable. It 
may serve some purpose, if I give, here, a 
brief account of these cards.* 

The first card is anew introduction to the 
subject, by the author of the series ; and 
contains no lines or figures. The second 
contains horizontal, vertical or perpendicu- 
lar, and oblique -lines . No. 3, contains an- 
gles — right, acute, and obtuse angles. No. 
4, contains triangles, squares, &c. No. 5, 
circles, ellipses, curved lines, &c. Thus 
far he proceeds very much in the order re- 
commended in Chapter II. 

But with No. 6, he introduces the figures 
of a cube, a cylinder, a pyramid, &c. — 
These, as the reader of course knows, are 
made up from right lines, and a few 
curves ; — but then they are arranged ac- 
cording to the laws of perspective, in re- 
gard to which the pupil will need a little 
information. 

It will be well for the teacher to begin 
with straight lines, and review, briefly, the 
whole course, till he comes to the formation 
of cubes, cylinders and pyramids. Here 
he will need to dwell, till a little art is ac- 
quired, in the formation and combination of 
these preliminaries. Let him not be in 
haste. 

* These cards are published by Wm. Marshall & Co. 
of Philadelphia. 

q* 


‘20 *2 


The next three numbers of Mr. H. are 
delineations — that is mere outlines — of a 
mallet, a cricket or stool, and a funnel, or 
as it is sometimes vulgarly called a tunnel. 
They are simply new combinations of the 
straight and curved lines, already mention- 
ed. The next three are representations of 
culinary vessels, and are chiefly the result 
of varied combinations of -the curved line ; 
such as the figures of jars and bottles. On 
these, also, considerable attention should 
be bestowed, for the sake of the curved 
lines which they involve. 

Several of the next numbers, in order, 
are of the same general character with those 
last mentioned. They are either the repre- 
sentations of culinary vessels, or of agricul- 
tural or mechanical instruments. Among 
them are the pail, bucket, lamp, candle- 
stick, watering pot, cork screw, saw, wood- 
horse, matlock, ax, broad ax, shovel, adze, 
auger, sickle, shears, curry comb, flail and 
pitch fork. Let it not be supposed that the 
drawing of these common instruments and 
utensils of every day life, especially of ag- 
ricultural life, is unimportant, or will prove 
uninteresting to the pupil — for the reverse 
will be found more true. 

While the teacher is setting his copies of 
these vessels and instruments, he will also 
do well to describe, more or less fully, their 
uses, their abuses, their excellencies and 


m 


their defects. A vast amount of useful in* 
struction may thus be given, which our pu- 
pils at school, very seldom acquire ; and 
\vithout the least hindrance to the main 
pursuit. 

Or what is better still, perhaps, the teach- 
er may introduce the whole subject of draw- 
ing, by merely sketching some one or more 
•of these objects on the black board, letting 
it stand there, and then requiring the pupils 
to write, on their slates, what they know 
about the object ; its properties, uses, 
abuses, &c. After a series of lessons of 
this sort, it may be well to proceed as 
above. Strange would it be, if some of the 
pupils have not already tried their skill at 
drawing the object, before it comes to be 
required of them. A coarse outline of a 
dog, for example, will hardly be in full view 
of pupils with slates in their hands all day, 
without some of them trying to see what 
they can do in the way of imitation, &c. 
They cannot draw, they would perhaps 
say, and would be loth to try ; and yet in 
these circumstances which I have named, 
without the interposition of task work — 
rather as I might perhaps say by stealth — 
many of them will be surprised at their 
own success ; and not only surprised, bu‘ 
delighted with it. 

But the intelligent and ingenious teacher 
will not coniine himself wholly to these par- 


204 


ticular objects. He will draw other vessels 
and instruments, in great numbers — the ink 
stand and pen, the table, the slate and the 
black board itself. He will also occasionally 
recur, for variety’s sake, (should the recur- 
rence be necessary in order to keep up the 
pupils’ interest,) to the drawing of persons, 
houses, animals, &c. 

No. 27 and 28, of the series I have men- 
tioned, are an introduction to the drawing 
of vegetables — an oak leaf, an acorn and 
a bough. Still, the drawings are mere out- 
lines, and are intended to be so. They 
should be extended to the trunks as well 
as limbs of trees ; and into flower, and fruits 
of various kinds, and various sizes. 

To the vegetables, succeed some of the 
animals — the bird, the snail, (including the 
shell,) the butterfly, the fish, the snake, the 
dog, and the horse ; and finally, man. On 
each of these considerable time should be 
expended, and many anecdotes or illustra- 
tions given. 

I have insisted, all along, on the import- 
ance of being thorough in every thing ; be- 
cause the tendency, in common schools, is 
always the other way — to superficiality. 
And yet I am aware, that strictly speaking 
we have no time, in these schools, for per- 
fection in any thing — science or art. All 
we aim at, is to give our pupils the mere 
elements, or as it were keys of knowledge. 


Nor can in truth the most liberal course of 
education do more. He who would be a 
thorough student in any thing must give up 
to it some of the years of his more mature 
life. 

[The subject of the preceding chapter is now receiving 
much attention from the friends of public schools. In the 
Franklin School, Boston, instruction in this branch was 
given gratuitously during the winter of 1838-9, by a lady, 
to a class of fifty pupils, with such results, that it has led 
to its introduction into other schools. The same lady is 
now (1841-42) giving instruction to a class composed of 
all the teachers of the Primary Schools, nearly one hun- 
dred in all. The details of her mode of teaching is given 
in “ A Method of Teaching Linear Drawing ,” published by 
E. P. Peabody, Boston. 

The u Primer of Reading and Drawing" by Mary T. Pea- 
body, contains some excellent exercises in drawing, a few 
of which are appended to this volume, with the permission 
of the author. The Primer is an admirable book to assist 
in teaching children the first steps in reading.] 


[The following chapter, on Book Keeping, was prepared 
by Mr. Harris, the author of an excellent and popular 
treatise on this subject. Mr. Harris has recently prepared 
an edition for the use of common schools.] 


CHAPTER XVII. 


BOOK KEEPING. 

An accountant competent to record the 
business of a large mercantile establish- 
ment, should be an elegant and quick pen- 
man, expeditious and accurate in computa- 
tions, familiar with mercantile forms, and 
having some acquaintance with the busi- 
ness which he is to record. To compass 
these qualifications, requires much time, 
and a practice similar to that of the count- 
ing room. It is, however, in the power of 
almost every school boy, with one winter’s 
study, to obtain such a knowledge of simple 
book-keeping, &c. as may be highly useful 
to him in the ordinary business of life. 
Every boy should know how to use practi- 
cally the Day Book and Ledger , should be 
able readily to write an order , due bill , re- 
ceipt , promissory note , &c. Now, nine tenths 
of the young men who leave school to 
engage in business, are not only ignorant 
of any mode of keeping accounts, but of 
forms of receipts, &c., which necessarily 
come into the business of the mere day 
laborer. If this evil could not be abated 


207 


we would bear it, but it can be, and can 
be done in our district schools and no where 
else ; and I shall offer a few suggestions on 
the best mode of teaching book keeping in 
these schools. The practice, in some of our 
schools, of using blank books on which to 
copy forms, is a good one ; but in most 
schools it is impracticable, and the slate 
and black board must be substituted. To 
make any good degree of progress, classes 
should be formed, and the members of 
them be furnished with suitable text books, 
from which lessons should be given, and 
recited. At the time of recitation or previ- 
ously, such forms as are involved in the les- 
son, should be written on the black board ; 
which forms should be copied by each mem- 
ber of the class on to his slate. 

The first lessons should include the 
forms of orders, due bills, receipts, invoi- 
ces, promissory notes, &c., for all who do, 
and many who do not keep a set of books, 
have use for these. The peculiarities in 
these different forms, why one form of a 
receipt is given sometimes, rather than an- 
other, the rules and laws which regulate 
them, &c. should be explained by the 
teacher at the recitation. These forms, in 
all their varieties should be copied and stud- 
ied, till they can be written and repeated 
readily by the class. After a familiarity is 
acquired in the form of bills of goods or in- 


208 


voices, the class should be well drilled in 
carrying out the prices. 

Form third, and similar ones, should be 
written on the black board, which should 
be copied on to slates, prices carried out 
and answers composed. Then should fol- 
low examples of Dr. and Cr., with individ- 
uals as they ordinarily apper on the Day 
Book, or Day Book and Ledger. Several 
examples similar to the account with J. 
Pratt, may be written on the black board, 
slates, &c. 

For the form of Day Book and Ledger, 
reference must be had to the text book, 
which should lead the class along to an 
important knowledge of the subject. The 
teacher will find it interesting and profitable 
to the class, to give them some lessons 
which involve the principles of double entry. 
Whether it would be advisable to pursue 
such lessons to any great extent, must be 
left to the discretion of the teacher, as well 
as other things of which I cannot here 
speak. The following forms may be used 
according to the directions given, or others 
may be selected from the text book, or 
made up by the class and teacher. 

RECEIPTS. 

Received, Hartford, March 4th, 1842, from 
Daniel Wadsworth, sixty-five dollars, on 
book account. Nicholas Harris. 


209 


Received, New Haven, June 6th, 1842, 
from Joseph Pratt, sixteen bushels of corn, 
the amount due me by him. 

Daniel Buck. 

Received, Norwich, August 9th, 1842, 
from James A. Ayrault, on account of E. 
B. Hall, twenty-five dollars, payment in 
full for a horse bought of me by said Hall. 

J. M. Morgan. 

ORDERS. 

Messrs. Johnson & Co. 

Please pay to the bearer, James 
Wing, three dollars and twenty cents, and 
place the same to iny account. 

Wm. E. Imlay. 

Hartford, Dec. 3d, 1S42. 

Messrs. Gilbert & Co. 

Please deliver to the bearer, thirty 
six Shovels, purchased by me this morning. 

John Olmsted. 

Hartford, June 19th, 1842. 

Mr. James Watson, 

Will please pay to the bearer, 
Nicholas Harris, twenty three dollars in 
goods from your store, and place the same 
to my account. 

E. W. Bull. 

' Hartford, March 24th, 1842. 
r 


210 


NOTES. 

+ 

Hartford, June 7th, 1842. 

On demand, I promise to pay to the 
order of Wm. W. Ellsworth, three hundred 
dollars, value received. 

Fox & Pease. 

Hartford, July 18th, 1842. 

Six months from date, I promise to pay, 
to the order of John Olmsted & Co., at the 
Hartford Bank, one hundred dollars and 
twelve cents, value received. 

Wm. B. Case. 


DUE BILL. 

Due, Hartford, Jan. 4th, 1842, to Henry 
Barnard, twenty six dollars, (to be paid in 
corn at market price,) or (to be paid in 
goods.) Charles Davies. 

BILLS. 


Charles Burt, 


To Hayward & Smith, Dr. 


August 


12 


14 


For 


1 days work — man and team, 
16 bushels potatoes, at 25 f 
4 loads manure, “ 1,00 


3 50 

4 00 
4 00 


11 | 50 


211 


Hartford, April 9th, 1842. 
W. H. Imlay, 




To Joel Hills, 

Dr. 

March 

3 

For 3 loads Paving Stone, at 2,00 

6 1 00 

“ 

4 

“ 3 casks Lime, “ 2,50 

7 50 

U 

7 

“ 6 days work, “ 1,75 

10 | 50 



Received payment, 

Joel Hills. 

24 | 00 


Some member of the class may be re- 
quired to write upon black board, at the 
time of recitation or before, bills similar to 
the two preceding, involving different kinds 
of business. The prices, general arrange- 
ment, punctuation, &c. should be subjected 
to the criticism of the class. 


Hartford, June 8th, 1842. 
Oliver Ellsworth, Dr. 

To Fox & Porter. 


April 

6 

For 12 boxes Sugar, 850 lbs. at ,55 

12 

“ 10 bales Cassia, 500 “ “ ,40 

June 

1 

15 bags Coffee, 648 a “ ,17 
“ 20 bis. Flour, 10,00 

« 

2 

U 

6 

** 10 boxes Raisins, 1,50 


992 66 


Forms of bills like the last may be* J wTitpf^ 
ten on the black board, to be copied on to " 
slates at the time of recitation, when each 
boy may carry out the prices. This will^| 
be" found a very useful exercise, and one^P 
which can be long practiced with interest 
to the class. 


212 


Joseph Pratt. Dr. Cr. 


Aug. 


1 

To 3 bus. Indian Corn, at 75 

2 

25 


3 

“ 8 cords hard Wood, “ 8,00 

64 

00 


4 

“ 6 tons Hay, at 14,00 

84 

00 


7 

9 

By Cash, 

To 3 barrel Flour, at 5,00 

15 

00 

100 

10 

12 

By rent of house, 

To 36 Shade Trees, “ 20 

7 

20 

50 


The Dr. column shows how much Pratt 
has purchased, and the Cr. column how 
much he has paid. In this case the bal- 
ance owed by Pratt, at date is $22 45. 
The class may be required to make out 
accounts against each other, similar to the 
above, and show them on their slates when 
they come together to recite. They should 
be practiced particularly in locating the 
figures, one above the other , and in adding 
long columns of figures. Both these exer- 
cises are much neglected in our schools. 


DAY BOOK. 


Mar 1, John Olmsted & Co. Dr. 

To 12 bushels Rye, at 75 I 91001 1 I 

“ 16 “ Wheat “1,00 | 16|oo|| 25|00 

ar 2, Ellery Hills, Dr. 

To 60 bushels Potatoes, at 20 I 1210011 I 

“ 25 Turkies 150 lbs. at 8 | 12 1 00 1 1 24|00 

Mar 4, John Olmsted & Co. Cr. 

By Cash in full, 



25100 


213 


At the time of recitation, the members oi 
the class may be required to make such 
entries upon the black board as would be 
required in ordinary business transactions, 
as above, and then post them similar to the 
following method. 

LEDGER. 


Dr. John Olmsted & Co. Cr 


Mar 1 To Merchandise, 25 0011 Mar 4 

By Cash, 25 00 

Dr. Ellery Hills, 

Cr. 

Mar 2 To Merchandise, 24 00j 1 



On the Dr. side of any person’s account 
are posted all sums which he owes you, and 
on the Cr. side all sums which he pays you. 
In this case, Olmsted is supposed to have 
paid all that he owed, and Hills to have 
paid nothing, consequently owing $24,00. 


I 

* 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


MISCELLANEOUS INSTRUCTIONS. 

There are many things which teachers 
think it important to inculcate in school 
which can hardly be classed under either of 
the foregoing heads, although they have an 
important relation to the subjects of several 
of them. Such are the sou?ids of the letters , 
or the elements of English utterance ; a knowl- 
edge of the powers used in composition ; the 
use of some of the abbreviations ; the use of 
numeral letters , <fcc. 

There are several ways of teaching Eng- 
lish utterance. One Way* — -perhaps among 
the best-^-is that which I am about to men- 
tion, involving the free use of the black- 
board. 

Suppose the teacher wishes to present 
to his pupils thd various sounds of the 
letter c. After assuring them that it 
has two sounds, its natural soft sound on 
that of s, and its unnatural or bad sound, 
on that of k, he thus illustrates the differ- 


215 


<ence on the blackboard ; requiring them to 
copy the whole directly upon their slates. 


k. s. Jc. s . 

cake cent (ca) cake (ce) cent 

coal city (co) coal (ci) city 

cup cylinder (cu) cup (cy) cylinder 

The teacher need not prefix the ca ce See. 
to the words, till he has shown his pupils 
by repeated and numerous examples that 
.this is the universal rule ; after which it is 
useful* to prefix them and require the pupils 
to do the same. Subsequently to this it 
may be well to write down the rule. “ C 
is hard before a, o and a ; soft before e, i 
and y;” and leave it standing on the slate. 

The difference between this and the old 
method of teaching the same thing, is that 
it was formerly customary to commit the 
rule to memory, in the first place whether 
the thing itself was understood or not ; 
whereas, with the aid of the blackboard, 
See. teach the thing itself first, and the rule 
afterward. 

This single example may suffice, as an 
illustration of the method proposed of teach- 
ing the sounds of the letters by the aid of 
slates and blackboards. A thousand other 
illustrations might be added, but they would 
be mere repetitions of this. 

To teach the pauses in composition, we 
have simply to write them and apply them 


21 G 


on the blackboard, according to their re- 
spective uses. For my own part, I never 
care to teach children the use of them at all, 
except in connection with composition, as 
I have already stated at the close . of the 
chapter on that subject. Still as many 
teachers prefer to have their pupils commit 
them to memory, or at least understand that 
they require a suspension of utterance for a 
longer or shorter period, it may be well to 
devote a few moments to that subject. 

Let a plain English sentence, thpn, not 
unlike the following, be written down, in 
large, staring letters on the black board. 

Samuel , bring your booh to me ; I wish to 
hear you read.' 

Here 1 would say, are three of the more 
important pauses ; the comma, the semico- 
lon and the period. The first is the comma ; 
you may imitate it, on your slates. The next 
is the semicolon. The third, and last, is the 
period. They should write them all. 

Next they should understand, by my own 
example, that at the comma, whenever we 
come to it, in reading, we should pause long 
enough to say distinctly one; at the semico- 
lon, long enough to say one , two ; and at the 
period, long enough to say one , two, three , 
four, Jive, six. 

In a similar way, should we proceed to 
teach the use of the colon, the exclamation 
point, the interrogation point, the caret, the 


‘217 


parenthesis, &c. This is merely teaching 
them practically, rather than theoretically ; 
I claim for it no merit, on account of novel- 
ty. The only caution, I need add, is that 
which is always very much in point, “Make 
haste ; but make haste slowly .” 

The abbreviations used in composition are 
best taught, in a similar manner, on the 
blackboard. For this purpose, as it is in 
the case preceding, the blackboard and 
slates have better advantage over books, ex- 
cept that they save the expense of the latter, and 
render the subject of study a little more 
tangible, as it were, and therefore a little 
more practical. Merely committing such 
things to memory, does not answer, well, 
the purposes for which it is intended. I 
never mew a pupil who fully understood 
them, in that .way. Some of the best read- 
ers, and the most liberally educated people 
whom I know, say, for the following, Messrs . 
James Myrick fy Co. ; Gentlemen Sirs James 
Myrick & Co. And why this ? Because, 
in the table where they committed it to their 
memories, the words Gentlemen, and Sirs 
both stand opposite the abbreviation that 
the pupil may have his choice ; and as there 
was no direction about it, they took both. The 
blackboard may prevent such errors. 

The numeral letters, like the pauses and 
sounds of the latter — and for the very same 
reasons — are best learned from the black- 


board. The process need not be long* 
With very little pains they are both easily 
understood and readily retained in the 
memory. 

One valuable method is to make, for ex- 
ample, a V in the middle of the blackboard, 
and after asking what it stands for, then 
ask the pupils to tell what shall be added 
to it to make it represent six ; what to make 
it stand for eight, &c. So of X, XX, C. 
D, M, &c. Another good exercise is for 
the teacher to write a certain number on the 
blackboard or the ordinary characters used 
in arithmetic ; say 24 ; and then require 
his pupils to write on their slates, the nu- 
meral letters which represent it. 

Another exercise on the blackboard con- 
sists in making corrections of misrepresen- 
tations. Nothing is more common among 
us than to mispronounce words. Hund- 
reds — perhaps I might say thousands — * of 
words we almost daily use among us are 
pronounced awkwardly by many well bred 
people ; and, b\ r others, entirely wrong. A 
small number of these words should be pla- 
ced on the blackboard daily, when it can 
possibly be spared, and kept on it ; and the 
pupils occasionally required to pronounce 
them till the error is effectually eradicated. 

* Mr. Bumstead in his “ Spelling and Thinking,” has 
about 1000 such words at the bottom of his pages ; and we 
may be assured that his list includes but a part of those 
which are current among us. 


219 


A similar course may be pursued with 
errors of expression, such as the use of 
double negatives, the disagreement of the 
verb with its nomative case ; the commoti 
and frequent violation of the rule “ the verb 
to be has the same case after it as before it,” 
&c. Also the usual contractions of “ have 
not,” •* are not,” &c. into haint and aint . Let 
the teacher write, on the black board, 


have 

not 

haint 

am 

not 

aint 

shall 

not 

shant 


And let them stand there a few days, and 
let him occasionally drill the pupils on 
them, and an impression will be made which 
will never be forgotten. So of “I hain’t 
got nc^ook,” and “ how sweetly the birds 
sings . “ It was me that did it,” &c. only 

place them on the blackboard, and place the 
true English expressions opposite to them, 
and proceed as before ; and your success, 
though slow, will be sure and certain. 

Let me mention one thing more. I al- 
luded to the art of subscribing a letter, di- 
recting one to a friend, writing a note, &c. 
How much of awkwardness there often is 
in people who ought to know better, in man- 
aging these little things. Yet the black- 
board and a little ingenuity and patience, 
might prevent it. How easy it is to make 
a long square, in the form of a letter, ori 


220 


the blackboard, and then write within it just 
as we ought on the back of a letter ! — Suit- 
able remarks might be made on the proper 
way of writing one’s name in a book, &c. &c. 

In short, there is hardly any thing, which 
it is necessary for us to know, which, in its 
rudiments at least, may not in this way be 
inculcated ; and, on the principle that what is 
addressed to two senses, the eye and the 
ear is longer retained than what is address- 
ed to but one, be made eminently practical^ 







CHAPTER XIX. 


MORALITY. 

There are several ways of teaching mor- 
als and religion with the aid of the black- 
board. Some of them are direct ; others 
are indirect. Let me begin with what I 
call indirect teaching. 

1. Furnishing employment to the pupils 
of our common schools, has of itself a moral 
tendency. To keep children as well as 
grown people occupied with that which is 
useful, or even with that which is not hurt- 
ful, is one means, among many, of keeping 
them out of mischief. Hence slate and 
blackboard instruction, by furnishing much 
innocent not to say positively valuable in- 
struction and prevents evil, has a moral ten- 
dency. 

But these employments, throughout, may 
be positively useful, as well as negatively 
so. The wise and benevolent teacher — he 
who not only seeks to make his pupils wiser 
but also better, will often be able to give a 
moral turn to his lessons in mere science. 
The words and sentences selected for vari- 
ous purposes — spelling, defining, reading, 
&c. — may be such as will slowly but surely 
effect the heart. Such a tendency, more 
s 


222 


especially, may be given to all anecdotes, 
lessons on biography and history. 

3. Morality is also indirectly taught by 
the habits of industry which are acquired. 
For it cannot be otherwise than that the la- 
zy custom to which our pupils are subject- 
ed, in being confined from hour to hour on 
the school bench, literally doing nothing — if 
indeed the teacher can succeed in making 
them do nothing — has a tendency, so far as 
it goes, to make them indolent through life. 
On the other hand, I cannot doubt that by 
imparting the busy hum of industry, slate 
and blackboard instruction have a good ten- 
dency. I do not of course, forget that bad 
men are often highly industrious ; never- 
theless this does not militate at all against 
what I have said. 

4. Once more. How many a time have 
I seen a school become noisy, unaccounta- 
bly so, especially towards its close, in spite 
of all which could be done by the best 
teacher. Now a part of this evil is justly 
chargeable on a want of employment. But 
let a teacher, in these trying circumstances, 
call the attention of the whole school to the 
blackboard. Is there no experience, either 
in all the wide range which has been gone 
over in this book or that wider range which 
will be afforded by the efforts of an ingeni- 
ous teacher, which is adapted to arrest their 
attention and thus restore quiet and order? 


i 


223 


If there is not, then I have not studied cor- 
rectly the human heart, and, above all the 
character and habits of infancy and child- 
hood. How long would it take a teacher 
to sketch, for example, most of the Mediter- 
ranean sea and say ; Here is the rock of 
Gibraltar ; and so relate some anecdote 
about it. How long to make a picture, of a 
whale or a seal, or a ship, and say something 
respecting it, &c. & c. 

But morality may be taught directly by 
the aid of the blackboard. How may teach- 
ers procure printed cards, containing valu- 
able moral rules and precepts, and hang 
them up in their school rooms. How many, 
too, think they have a good moral tendency! 
Perhaps it is so. But admitting all that is 
claimed for them, the effect cannot last 
long ; it must soon wear out. How much 
more valuable are precepts written on the 
blackboard, to remain for a time and then 
erased, and their place supplied by others. 

Whether or not these precepts when 
strictly moral and religious, make much 
permanent impression, there is a class of 
precepts which, by helping to establish or- 
der in school have a good and I may say, 
moral tendency. Children are, too often, 
forgetful of what is told them in school, even 
when their general purpose is to be obedi- 
ent. Tell them to do but one thing at a time , 
and they will endeavor perhaps to conform 


224 


to your wishes, as long as they remember 
it, but if they forget it, in five or ten min- 
utes, what then will you do ? Tell them 
over again, do you reply ? The reply is a 
just one ; but can you not enlist the black- 
board as an aid in this business of telling 
things over and over again ? Can }mu not 
write down your precept, or rule, rather, in 
large letters, and let it stand there in full 
view of the school, till it becomes needful 
to substitute something else in its place ? 
It could do harm to no pupil ; while it might 
save much trouble with a large class of those 
whose worse fault is that of forgetfulness. 

How many valuable rules, in manners, 
morals, &c. might thus be presented to the 
minds of the pupils of a school, in the course 
of a single quarter ! One advantage which 
they have over those which are printed and 
bung up in the room, is, that they do not 
remain long enough to become stale, before 
they are removed to make room for some- 
thing else. 

But again ; set lessons or lectures on be- 
havior or morals, may be far better incul- 
cated — if teachers choose to lecture their 
children at all in this way — by aid of the 
blackboard, than without it. Let a person 
for instance, be endeavoring to show the in- 
fluence of evil example. He wrote, per- 
haps, on the blackboard ; the words of Sol- 
omon, “ one sinner destroy eth much good.** 


225 


Now though he may not now forget his 
own text or motto, while speaking, yet not a 
few of the pupils may forget the text ; and 
is it not well to have something to recall it 
to their minds ? 

How many an adult who suffers his mind 
to wander in church, during the sermon, 
forgets the text, and unable to get hold of 
the subject of the discourse, as to aid in re- 
calling his attention, remains for some time, 
in a state of listlessness ; and loses much 
of the discourse ? Would not such people 
be greatly aided if the text were written in 
large letters on a blackboard behind the 
minister ? But do children need wander 
less, while the teacher is lecturing them, 
than the minds of adults while the minister 
is preaching ? And would the text in large 
letters on the blackboard be less useful to 
them than to adults ? Should we not, act 
wisely in endeavoring to render that which 
is, at best, rather dry to children, as inter- 
esting as possible ? 













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